We have decided to call time on Two Shrinks Pod as our personal and professional lives have prevented us from being able to regularly produce the show. As we both care about the quality of the work we put out, we decided that if we couldn’t produce something we were proud of then it was time to end the pod.

Thank you to all of the tens of thousands of listeners who had let us into your ears and minds, and for sharing our nerdy sense of humour. Thanks to our collaborators and interview guests.

It has been an amazing journey to go on with all of you.

We will keep our episodes and website up indefinitely.

If you want to contact us, we will keep monitoring our email [email protected] and our twitter @twoshrinkspod until the end of May 2023.

Irvin Yalom said “life is a spark between two identical voids, the darkness before birth and the one after death”.

Listeners, thanks for making our spark burn that just that bit brighter. We hope yours burned brighter too for having listened to us.

Amy and Hunter.

If you’re a student struggling to cope with exams or a parent supporting one, this episode is for you. Just in time for the year 12 exams, we’ve prepared a crash course on how to cope with anxiety in the lead up, on the morning of and during an exam.
Listen for practical tips, how to know when to take a break and ways you can calm down once your in your exam.

In this episode we cover how to cope:

During study periods

The night before/morning of an exam

During the exam

Afterwards if you have another exam

This episode of Two Shrinks Pod was sponsored by Calabash.
Visit https://calabash.courses/twoshrinkspod to access a free talk

Head over to the School of Movies Podcast to listen to Amy and Hunter talk about the comedy mob film Analyze This starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. We talk about anxiety attacks, toxic masculinity, doing therapy at gun point and the ethical issues of receiving gifts from your mobster client.

School of Movies Analyze This : https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-jbcwc-12d7d2b

School of Movies is a British podcast hosted by Alex and Sharon Shaw who dissect and discuss modern cinema, there is no movie podcast like it and it is well worth a listen.

2SP has previously been on their show discussing
Inside Out: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-44rqh-b61ed2

Zombieland: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-66pz9-c3c60f

and Mary and Max: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-mqs5i-eb20ef

Sharon was also a guest on 2SP in last year’s instalment of Shrinks on Film : https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/71-psychs-on-film-3-shrinks-with-a-vengeance/id1236774684?i=1000526171601

This episode we’ve put together a crash course on phobias. We know phobias are on the VCE psychology exam and we have covered the main topics and theories covered in the course. The episode is pitched at Australian year 12 psychology students (and for their parents wanting to understand what this psychology garbage is).

We don’t assume any prior psychology knowledge so this means that it is good episode for anyone who want to understand about psychological theory and treatment. Understanding phobias and their treatment brings together a lot of core psychological concepts. Listen in for easy to understand definitions, examples and how it all fits together to understand the case of Ron Weasley’s arachnophobia.

We can’t promise we have talked about everything on the exam but it should be a good way to brush up pre exam.

Looking for something specific?
01:20 Definitions
13:50 Prevalence
16:20 The 4 P’s & the biopsychosocial model: A case study of Ron Weasley
25:00 Classical conditioning
37:00 Operant conditioning
48:00 GABA dysfunction
51:10 Stress response system
55:45 Cognitive biases
1:01:30 Triggers
1:04:00 Transtheoretical model of change
1:09:00 Treatment

If you liked the episode please rate/review us or tell someone about the show.

You can access your free Calabash talk at https://calabash.courses/twoshrinkspod

For episode 81 we’re taking a comprehensive, research driven look at abortion: what it’s like making the decision, how it impacts people psychologically and what happens if you can’t have one when you want to?
Join us for a discussion of what the research actually says, in all it’s complexity, about how women respond after an abortion.

To skip forward to a particular topic:

05:30 Decision making

19:35 Psychological impacts of having a voluntary abortion

40:25 Impacts on sexual functioning

44:45 Psychological impacts of having an abortion for medical reasons

49:12 Outcomes for women who want an abortion but are denied one

This week’s episode was brought to you by Calabash. Access your free talk at:
https://calabash.courses/psych-company/

Research (in order of discussion):

Introduction:

• APA Taskforce on Mental Health and Abortion (2008) https://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/abortion/mental-health.pdf 

• Abortion definition (2019) https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/nine-out-of-10-abortions-done-before-12-weeks-in-many-high-income-countries/  

• Australian abortion rates (2021) https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/8/estimating-abortion-rate-australia-national-hospital-morbidity-and 

Decision making:

• Bracken & Kasl (1975) Delay in seeking induced abortion: a review and theoretical analysis
  https://doi.org/10.1016/0002-9378(75)90929-1 

• Miller (1992) An empirical study of psychological antecedents and consequences of induced abortion
  https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1992.tb00898.x 

• Allanson (2007) Abortion decision and ambivalence: Insights via an abortion decision balance sheet
  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13284200701675767 

• Pereira, Pires & Canavarro (2019) Decision-making trajectories leading to termination of an unplanned pregnancy: specificities among adolescent and adult women https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2019.1566596 

• Leithner et al (2021) Three or less? Decision making for or against selective reduction and psychological outcome in forty women with a triplet pregnancy
  https://doi.org/10.1080/0167482X.2020.1750005 

Psychological responses following a voluntary abortion:

• Steinberg et al (2016) Psychosocial factors and pre-abortion psychological health: the significance of stigma
   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.12.007 

• Horvath & Schreiber (2017) Unintended pregnancy, induced abortion, and mental health
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-017-0832-4 

• Rocca et al (2013) Women’s emotions one week after receiving or being denied an abortion in the United States
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24020773/

• O’Donnell, O’Carroll and Toole (2018) Internalized stigma and stigma-related isolation predict women’s psychological distress and physical health symptoms post-abortion
  https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0361684317748937 

• Foster et al (2015) A comparison of depression and anxiety symptom trajectories between women who had an abortion and women denied one
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25628123/

• Toffol et al (2016) Anxiety and quality of life after first-trimester termination of pregnancy: a prospective study
  https://doi.org/10.1111/aogs.12959 

• Van Ditzhuijzen et al (2018) Long-term incidence and recurrence of common mental disorders after abortion. A Dutch prospective cohort study
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.04.001 

• Biggs et al (2017) Women’s mental health and well-being 5 years after receiving or being denied an abortion: a prospective, longitudinal cohort study
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27973641/ 

• Biggs et al (2018) Five-year suicidal ideation trajectories among women receiving or being denied an abortion
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27973641/ 

• Holmlund et al (2014) Psychological ill-being experienced by first-time mothers and their partners in pregnancy after abortion: a cohort study
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27973641/ 

Sexual functioning:

• Limoncin et al (2017) The effect of voluntary termination of pregnancy on female sexual and emotional well-being in different age groups
  https://doi.org/10.1080/0167482X.2017.1285901 

Psychological responses after an abortion for medical reasons:

• Nazare, Fonesca & Canavarro (2013) Adaptive and maladaptive grief responses following TOPFA: actor and partner effects of coping strategies
  https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2013.806789 

• Nazare, Fonesca & Canavarro (2013) Trauma following termination of pregnancy for fetal abnormality: is this the path from guilt to grief?
  https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2012.743335 

• Lafarge, Mitchell & Fox (2017) Posttraumatic growth following pregnancy termination for fetal abnormality: the predictive role of coping strategies and perinatal grief
  https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2012.743335 

Outcomes for women who want an abortion and can’t have one:

• Rocca et al (2013) Women’s emotions one week after receiving or being denied an abortion in the United States
  https://doi.org/10.1363/4512213 

• Horvath & Schreiber (2017) Unintended pregnancy, induced abortion, and mental health
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-017-0832-4 

• The harms of denying a woman a wanted abortion: findings from the turnaway study
  https://www.ansirh.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/the_harms_of_denying_a_woman_a_wanted_abortion_4-16-2020.pdf 

• Ludermir et al (2010) Common mental disorders in late pregnancy in women who wanted or attempted an abortion
  https://doi.org/10.1017/s003329170999184x 

• Herd et al (2015) The implications of unintended pregnancies for mental health in later life
  https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302973 

Concluding remarks:

• Rebuttal to Coleman’s paper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3699180/ 

• Rebuttal to Reardon’s work https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/31/reardon-response-russo-and-schmeige-misleads-omission-and-commission 

• Quote from Surgeon General C Everett Koop https://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/abortion/mental-health.pdf 

The following resources supported our understanding of abortion legislation and access but were not cited in the show:

• Upadhyay et al (2021) Barriers to abortion care & incidence of attempted self-managed abortion
  https://www.contraceptionjournal.org/article/S0010-7824(21)00385-1/fulltext

• de Londras et al (2022) The impact of provider restrictions on abortion-related outcomes
  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-022-01405-x

• Faundes & Shah (2015) Evidence supporting broader access to safe legal abortion
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgo.2015.03.018

• Reingold & Gostin (2019) State abortion restrictions and the new supreme court
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31166573/

• Pierson (2022) Roe v Wade overturned: what abortion access and reproductive rights look like around the world
  https://theconversation.com/roe-v-wade-overturned-what-abortion-access-and-reproductive-rights-look-like-around-the-world-184013

This episode we’re covering our professional gripes with a thin veil of science and talking about work research. Join us for a light-hearted, research based whinge about frictionless spaces for nomadic workers (or hotdesking), how meetings interrupt us, documentation makes us burnt out and just how judgemental we all are about email signatures. To wrap up, Hunter proves a point about windfarms to a random farmer he met on a plane and Amy waxes lyrical about comfort food.

Work Research:

The demands and resources arising from shared office spaces

Settlers, vagrants and mutual indifference: unintended consequences of hot-desking

Meetings and more meetings: the relationship between meeting load and the daily well-being of employees

The impact of time spent on the electronic health record after work and of clerical work on burnout among clinical faculty

How Impactful Is Presentation in Email? The Effect of Avatars and Signatures

TWCA:

The Pattern of Complaints about Australian Wind Farms Does Not Match the Establishment and Distribution of Turbines: Support for the Psychogenic, ‘Communicated Disease’ Hypothesis

Exploring comfort food preferences across age and gender

This time on 2SP we’re taking a look at sarcasm through 4 research articles. How does it develop in childhood? Are some cultures really more sarcastic? Can make us more creative? And, can emojis help avoid awkward misunderstandings of sarcasm when we text?

After a delightful break with some sparkling shiraz, Hunter laments the impact of clutter on productivity and Amy talks about whether people feel more safely attached to their pets or their partners.

Sarcasm Research

The highest form of intelligence: Sarcasm increases creativity for both expressers and recipients (Huang et al, 2015)

Saying what you don’t mean: a cross-cultural study of perceptions of sarcasm (Blasko et al, 2021)

Emoji as a tool to aid the comprehension of written sarcasm: evidence from younger and older adults (Garcia et al, 2022)

Development of children’s ability to distinguish sarcasm and verbal irony (Glenwright & Pexman, 2010)

TWCA

Romantic partners and four-legged friends: an extension of attachment theory to relationships with pets (Beck & Madresh, 2015)

The impact of office clutter on remote working: “I can’t work with all this stuff!” (Ferrari et al, 2021)

Struggling to get anything done? Constantly torturing yourself over what you could’ve achieved if only you had a routine, stuck to a schedule, magically became a more productive, focused person? You’re not alone.

Join us for a chat with Madeleine Dore: Melbourne journalist, interviewer and creator of the Everyday Routines project.. She takes us through how to approach our days creatively, why we get stuck and how even the most prolific creatives battle with their routines.

Want to hear more from Madeleine?

We loved her book, I Didn’t Do the Thing Today: On Letting Go of Productivity Guilt:
https://www.murdochbooks.com.au/browse/books/other-books/I-Didnt-Do-The-Thing-Today-Madeleine-Dore-9781922351500

You can find her interviews, podcast & other work at:
https://extraordinaryroutines.com/

Her instagram is: @extraordinary_routines

For our last episode of the year we’re looking back over 2021. We chat about the episodes of the year with a dash of new research, a new therapy portrayal in Mare of Easttown and a nostalgic look at our favourite episodes. To really get things off our chests, we wrap up with the Gripe List - a random assortment of things that have pissed us off in 2021.

As always, thank you for listening. We’ll be back at the start of 2022

This episode we’re giving a crash-course for parents on how to help your child when they’re anxious. Amy talks us through what kids’ anxiety looks like, how to begin to calm things down and when to call in the experts. Listen for practical, doable tips on what to do when your kid’s anxiety is overwhelming them or you. To finish up, Hunter talks about and Amy is inspired by Twitter to talk through drop bear survival.

Parent resources:

Best bubble solution with a wand that’s attached to the lid: https://www.bigw.com.au/product/ultra-premium-amazing-bubbles-6-pack/p/789862
Books: The Whole Brained Child, Parenting from the Inside Out
Australian parenting programs: Tuning in to Kids, Bringing up Great Kids
ACF free parenting booklets: Connected Parenting, Mindful Parenting
A book for kids about anxiety & what’s happening in their brain: Hey, Warrior

Things we came across:
Holiday spending
Drop bear tracking