When we started this series, we were trying to answer a big question: is AI making us crazy? And it seems like, for some people, some of the time, the answer is yes. But it's complicated.

Which leads of course to another question: WHY is AI making us crazy? Why does anything in our culture influence delusions or cause psychosis? To answer these questions, we go back to where we started -- the ideas Dr. Joel Gold and Ian Gold, PhD wrote about in their book Suspicious Minds: How Culture Drives Madness (The Truman Show Delusion and other Strange Beliefs).

Specifically, we focus on their theories regarding the Suspicion System and Reflective System, and how these psychological mechanisms that have served an important evolutionary purpose throughout time can cause us problems when they malfunction today.

We hope you enjoy this final episode of our first season of Suspicious Minds. Be sure to follow here, and subscribe to our newsletter for updates on Season Two: https://agoricmedia.substack.com

From Executive Producers Mandy Teefey and Selena Gomez.

A Wondermind and Agoric Media Production

Featuring:

- Dr. Joel Gold (Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and co-author of Suspicious Minds)

- Ian Gold, PhD (Professor and Chair of Philosophy and Professor of Psychiatry, McGill and co-author of Suspicious Minds)

This is a wild clip about Parasocial Relationships (Cambridge Dictionary's 2025 Word of the Year), in which the new anchors begin talking about their viewers' imagined parasocial relationships with... them: https://youtu.be/HVdOOWh31W4?si=8GojrfE2XcONYX3C&t=6

Here’s a recently published paper on ‘AI Associated Psychosis’, which seems like a fair descriptor, based on clinical research – one of few published thus far:

https://innovationscns.com/youre-not-crazy-a-case-of-new-onset-ai-associated-psychosis/

Don't forget to check out the book that started it all! Suspicious Minds: How Culture Shapes Madness (The Truman Show Delusion and Other Strange Beliefs): https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Suspicious-Minds/Joel-Gold/9781439181577

This episode was made by:

Executive Producers: Mandy Teefey, Selena Gomez, Jonathon Glucksman, Molly Borman, Jesse Ford, David Tuohy

Editor: Joe Kell

Assistant Editor: David Justin Martin

Graphic Design and Animation: Semi:Formal

Title Design: Lucas Grassmay

Film/TV PR: Emma Griffiths PR

Podcast PR: Tink Media (Wil Williams and Shreya Sharma)

Wondermind Chief of Staff: Emma Wright

Social Assets: Myrkia Maguire

Trailer Edit: Crater

Directed and Created by Sean King O’Grady

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