The Psychology of your 20s - 308. It might get worse before it get's better

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Sharing a little life update with you around my mental health, my physical health, where my minds at, what I've been struggling with and how I'm constantly reminded that life can always get better!!!!! ORDER MY BOOK: https://www.psychologyofyour20s.com/general-clean  Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbeg Follow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcast For business: [e-mail]      The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. I'm on my podcast, 2%. I break down the signs of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world.

Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's TWO. percent on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor. It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen and learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

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I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello everybody and welcome back to the psychology of your 20s, the podcast where we talk through some of the big life changes and trends. transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast. New listeners,

old listeners, wherever you are in the world. It is so great to have you here back for another episode as we of course break down the psychology of our 20s. It's a bit of a different episode today. It's a chit chat, catch up with me, kind of episode. Because, because it's kind of been a while since I've just popped myself in front of the microphone and talked about my life, Gemma's life. What's been happening? What's been happening behind the scenes of the psychology of your 20s? I always feel a little bit weird doing these life updates, doing these like chatty episodes because I feel like that's not what you're really here for. perhaps I feel like you expect more from me sometimes like you expect the fully researched

fully fleshed out episodes and not delivering on that it's like not delivering on a promise and people are going to be disappointed that it's just me and my personality and no science but trying to get over that a little bit I also just think that that's my toxic productivity you know I release two episodes a week one of them every now and again can just be me getting to talk about myself and my learnings and how my beliefs and my life is changing. I'm actually reading this book right now called The Ambition Trap. I cannot remember who it's by, but it's called The Ambition Trap. And it's completely like fundamentally changed how I'm viewing work and productivity, specifically how I'm viewing perfection and allowing myself to make

mistakes and not even make mistakes, but allowing myself to have fun with my job and to have fun with my life. And something I'm really aiming for at the moment is trying to measure my life more by how I feel, what I can do for others, whether I feel creative, whether I'm patient, whether I have the capacity for patience and the capacity for kindness and how I'm taking care of myself. And this is kind of an effort to do that, to just sit down and talk rather than feel like I owe people something. So anyways, a long-winded way of saying, hello, welcome. Today we're going to talk about what's been going on in my life. You may remember, maybe almost a year ago, I would say seven months, I did another little chatty episode, what's been going on with me. And it was very, very different

to what I normally talk about. It was me essentially giving you the details behind my mental breakdown. Let's call it what it is. It was a mental breakdown. I was in such a dark and raw place and I was honestly so deeply detached from who I am and I felt so awful and detached from the world and from reality. And I was just a complete mess. And I feel like I kind of released that. episode. I felt very brave doing it. And then I just went back to like my regularly scheduled programming and it didn't really acknowledge it again, probably because so much happened afterwards. You know, I announced my book probably a month or two after I released that episode. So then I just got so caught up in, you know, promoting person in progress. Then I launched my new podcast

mantra. So then I got so caught up in launching mantra because I love it and because it's incredible. And then the book came out and then I had to promote the book coming out. And from the outside, you would definitely have this perception, or maybe not, but I think that there would be this perception that this last year of my life has been like amazing and incredible and I must be on such a high. And I'm not really. There's definitely elements of it in which I'm very happy and in which my life is getting exceedingly better. But there has been a lot of misery, I guess, a lot of silence struggling, like behind the scenes that, you know what, we need to talk about because what you see online isn't real.

What you hear on podcasts isn't always real. What you think about someone else's life isn't real. And as much as I love talking about our 20s and I love talking about psychology, I think my real passion is just talking about the vulnerable things that make us human. And part of that is being open just sitting here and saying, hey, like, there has been some things I've been really, that have been really hard in my life recently and you wouldn't have any clue. So let's talk about it.

Despite all of that, and I will obviously give you updates on what I'm talking about, um, life is slowly getting really, really good. And I feel like I've had some really incredible epiphanies and mindset, shifts and just like radical, I've just experienced some radical acceptance about unchangeable things in life. And when you have those kinds of radical moments and transformative moments, like, you just kind of want to scream it from the rooftop and just say to people like, it gets better. Like, it's going to get better. I've had a really tough year. I felt very ungrateful and guilty for not being able to enjoy my moments as much as I wish I had been able

to. But throughout at all, like there are some really incredible learnings that I think a life changing for me. So that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about why sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better, what it means to struggle, what it means to thrive, what it means to be freaking human. Without further ado, let's get into a little life update. So behind the scenes of the podcast at the moment, I have been going through it and I've been really building like this very whole new deep belief system. I feel like the real real. I feel like the reason I had this mental breakdown last year was quite existential. For those of you who don't know, like when I was growing up, I used to be, I used to have a really deep faith. My family was not religious.

We never went to church. They were about as atheist as it comes. But for some reason, I always really felt called into like organized religion. And so like for a lot of my teen years and like definitely just my late teen years, maybe like the first year of my 20s, like I always felt this like real higher calling and the sense of like, meaning in life that was attached to religion. And then I don't think I've ever talked about this, but I went through something, I don't want to call it traumatic,

but just like really frustrating and disturbing with the church that I was in involving someone I was dating. And I just never went back. Like, I was just like, no, I just can't do this anymore. Like, I just, it just completely like broke my belief structure. And then for a while there was just kind of like this, there was just this whole, I guess, like in my soul where I, all these big questions that

faith really filled for me, like I didn't have answers to. Like, what are we here for? What's the meaning of love? Is this a hostile or a loving universe? Like, what does fairness mean? What does justice mean? Like, I didn't really have answers for those things. And I feel like that all kind of came to a head last year when I was like, oh, I really don't have answers for these things. and that's actually really scary. And I have to kind of figure out what I want to believe in. And I have to figure out what I see my place in this world is like through my own means and through spirituality, through science, through philosophy, whatever it was that was going

to guide me there. And there was some other things going on as well. And it really like pushed me to such a low place, just thinking about the absurdity of the world. And what I really learned through that, and I honestly feel like the last month has been the first time that I've really come out of it since like it happened last year. Like it's this last month I've really been having like a moment of like, oh my God, like I'm getting things now and like I'm happy and wow, like life is beautiful.

And I feel like I'm such an optimistic person that I spent so much of last year and the start of this year feeling like life was defined by misery and suffering. And I've finally been able to appreciate like the miracle of existence. And that's like something that I really. value as such an optimistic person, I have to see the good in the world. So I'm glad that that is coming back to me. But what it's really reminded me of is like, it's just continually reminded me that it's always darkest before the dawn, that sometimes true growth does come from suffering and

that you can endure so much more than you think you can. And I remember like hearing people say that and being like, what are you talking about? Like, what are you on about? and then like the mental kind of battle that I've been through is just proven that to me time and time again, like how strong I am, how resilient I am. I also want to talk about some other things that have been happening. So I haven't talked about this at all, but right before my book was launched, I went into the optometrist, random. I needed to get new glasses.

And when I was at the optometrist, they like found something really scary. on my, what's it called, optical nerve, optic nerve, sorry. And I was in just like a regular schedule, regularly scheduled, like eye appointment. And this optometrist, like, was looking at these like retinal images that I had gotten done. And it was so random that I'd gotten them done. I wasn't paying attention. And the person at the front desk was like, oh, do you want these done? And I was like, yeah, yeah.

And then I was like, oh, do I really want those done? But I'd already said yes. So she was looking at these photos. And she basically was like, oh, you have, I'm not going to say. what it is, or maybe I will. Like, basically it was like that it's swelling. And it's all around the optic nerve, which is a really, really bad sign. And within like 20, I think like 48 hours, I was like at a specialist doing all these tests. The things they had to rule out were really scary. They had to rule out MS. They had to rule out a brain tumor. They had to rule out all these really

scary things that I wasn't having stroke. Within 48 hours, like, it was like, oh, this huge thing is happening with my vision, with my brain. Like, that's so scary. And I was in, like, the ophthalmologist's office. 48 hours after I found out I had this thing that I literally don't know, knew nothing about. And I remember I, like, kept my cool and then suddenly they were dilating my pupil, which I don't know if you've ever had this happen, but they put this stuff in your eye that makes your pupil go huge. And then you can't see for like the next four hours. And I was sitting there and I was like, and why does they were putting it in my eye? I was like, oh my gosh. Like this is something huge is happening to me. Like this is really scary and I've only just started processing it.

So they're trying to put these like drops in my eye and I'm like crying and I'm like hysterical. And like my boyfriend's there being like, I know it's so scary. And anyways, The thing is, is that I still don't have any answers around what's going on. This was literally, I'm trying to get the timeline right, like, very, like, within weeks before my book was launching, before my book was coming out. And suddenly it was just like, oh, my God, what is happening? And we're still trying to figure it out. Just having to get all these tests done, having to get all these MRIs, having to get all

this blood work. And it's been really, really scary. And the thing is, is that that was life getting worse. Like, I had all this other stuff going on. And then it was like, and bam, health scare. And, you know, and bam, like, life is fragile. Like, just in case you needed that reminder. And it was incredibly stressful.

Like, I'm laughing about it now, even though, like, I think now that I know I don't have, like, a significant brain tumor, and now that I definitely know that I wasn't having a stroke, I can laugh about it. But like it was kind of touch and go there and actually like the optometrist like called me after I'd left because she'd been like, oh, just go to the doctor eventually. And then she'd called me like six times and was like, hey, like this is actually an emergency. So that was scary. Now I feel fine.

And I feel like that was really the low point. I also had some people asking me like how was my mental health leading up to my book coming out? And I, so you guys might know, I tried to go off my medication. I'm on Lexapro. I tried to go off last year and it didn't go very, very well, unfortunately. This year I have actually tapered down to 10 milligrams. And I like, this is not medical advice. I just like to talk openly about dosages and everything because just might be helpful

to you. And I feel like I need it less and less, but it is such a safety net for me, right? I was going to say I know I could never get to a really low point, but obviously I could, but that was when I wasn't taking it. It's just a nice safety net for me. It's just like, okay, I know that my depression and my anxiety is biological. I know that. I exercise like four to five times a week.

I eat really well. I spend a lot of time outdoors. I have loving family, social connection. I have a purposeful goal. career. I'm safe. I have all my needs met and then some I'm able to give back. Like I'm doing all the things that people say are externally protective against depression and anxiety. And, you know, I'm doing all the behavioral interventions that people always say as helping and they didn't work. So I know that it's biological and I think just having this kind of intervention has been really, really useful. So that's

kind of like a medication update. But yeah, leading up to my book coming out, I was struggling. Not just because I had that health scare thing, which was significant, but because a lot of other big changes were happening in my life, I had to move house the day before my book came out as well, which was just like two huge things happening at once. And also something they may not tell you about writing a book is that it's quite anticlimactic, right so you um do a lot of work it takes so many hours and so much of you to write a book and then it all like comes to fruition on like one day and then after that like it's so weird like you don't

really hear from a lot of the people that you've worked with like you're suddenly just kind of on your own um and you're suddenly just like okay i have to do i'm just on my own like this book is here and you know, it's open, it's open for public opinion and you need people to buy it and you don't really know how to do that. And you also like will face disappointments in terms of people in your life not supporting you and people in your life, yeah, not really showing up for you at a big moment and not buying copies or, you know, not saying congratulations or like small things. I was saying to someone the other day, like, you know, the quote that's like, you know who your real friends are when you have a baby. You also know who your real friends are when you write a book

because I don't know. I feel like I'm the kind of friend where people do cool things like that. I'm like really all behind it. And it was interesting seeing how big things for you don't necessarily translate to big things for other people. So I think if I had been in a better mental state and hadn't had a big health scare right before my book came out, I would have been able to let those things go a little bit better, but it was a real struggle. So, there was like a weird low point high point where I was like, wow, huge career milestone. Also like, oh my God, what is going on in my life? This is when I want to talk about how things get better.

Like the theme of this episode is things get worse before they get better. Things could have gotten a whole lot worse to me. Let's be completely real. Like, honestly, what I was going through is nothing compared to what so many people around the world are going through right now. But things got worse. And then slowly these changes started in my life. and I felt like I had been in this waiting room.

I felt like I had gone through the dark night of the soul, as they call it. And suddenly someone like opened the door and was like, all right, cool. You've like done enough. Like you've sat here for long enough. We can tell you can take it. Welcome to the next chapter of your life. And I want to spend the next part of this episode talking about what that felt like and how grateful I am for where I am now and what.

what it is that I'm grateful for. So stick around. Stay with me. I want to tell you why it always gets better. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more. to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong.

Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either.

We always say that, trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all done. The same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care.

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or wherever you get your podcast. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-taped little Kim's boo at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we picket here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day,

Yeah, yeah. Literally. But just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed, correct. So I'm starting to see

that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. So. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to my new podcast. Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking.

Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it, and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch.

Life becomes about wins and loss. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway.

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. So this was the first thing that transformed my life and has gotten me out of a very dark period. I fostered a dog. And you guys might know that that foster is no longer my foster dog. It's now my actual dog. But I started out fostering this dog. Her name is Talu because I saw her on the RSPCA website.

and I just don't know what it was. I was like, I need to help this dog. I need her in my life. Like, I have space. I have capacity. I have time. I have, well, my house at the time did not allow dogs, but whatever I got around that. Like, I just felt this calling to go and rescue her.

And we brought her home and within like two days, me and my partner, Tom, were like, oh, uh-oh. Uh-oh, like really, really screwed up here. because this dog is the biggest sweetheart. She is so smart. She is so kind. She just so wants to be loved and she just so wants to be part of the pack. And we said to each other, we have to give it three months before deciding.

And if nobody has adopted her in three months, we can consider it. That did not last very long. We adopted her after a month. and there's just something around having a dog that changes your perspective. It makes you so much more selfless. It makes you more patient. You see life through it through their eyes. I feel like I'm rehashing what so many other people have discovered.

But oh my Lord, it was just so glorious. Like every single morning I wake up and I have to take her outside and I have to take her for a walk. And it's meant that I'm outdoors more and I have to, do these things for her, even if I don't want to, even if I'm busy, even if I'm in a bad mood. Life has become about her. And honestly, I think that it was not the distraction, but I think it was the thing I needed to get myself out of my ego. Like, I feel like I was really investing in this, like, idea of myself as like being, being, like, suffering. And I was like, oh, life is really hard and I'm trying my best and it's not working. And then I rescued her and her history.

is so terrible. Like she, yeah, was really badly abused and then was removed, like was forcibly removed, like someone came in and rescued her. And then the people who they rescued her from, like took the RSPCA to court and wanted to get her back. And like, so that meant she had to stay in the pound for a year before she was even allowed to go out of the pound and do visits and stuff. And I don't know. I was just like, wow, my life could be so much worse. And here is this beautiful animal, this beautiful creature who, you know, has a burn on her nose and is missing teeth and had such a hard start. And she freaking loves life. And she is like down to play. And every moment that she is allowed like to roll around in the grass is a beautiful moment. And breakfast is the best thing

of every day. And she wakes up and gets 20 minutes of cuddles in the bed because of course, we're such softies, we allow her in the bed. And it's just really transformative. And now I keep saying to people, like if you struggle with socializing, if you struggle, um, with feeling optimistic about life, if you struggle to see the joy in little things, foster a dog. If you can't adopt a dog, foster a dog or adopt a dog and just see how it completely changes your life. Obviously, like, make sure that you are in a good space.

Like, I feel like we didn't rush into it. We were really concentrated around, like, can we have a pet right now? And it just happened to work out. But the introduction of her into my life, I honestly feel like was a gift for. the universe. Then I started seeing a new therapist and that was also incredible because I feel like I was getting really stuck with my old therapist. She was amazing but I just felt like I had reached it sounds weird. I reached what I was willing to share with her and I was so like deeply worried about being triggered actually and about a therapist saying something that I hadn't considered

and really upsetting me that I wasn't revealing anything more to her and I feel I felt like because I hadn't revealed things to her in the past that she would like call me out for almost lying, like saying that I was okay when I wasn't. So I needed a fresh light. And so I went and I started seeing a new therapist, an existential therapist who was, has just been freaking amazing and has really just revealed to me how so much of what I struggle with is just a fear of the unknown and so much of what I struggle with is just my brain working differently. And I also have started running. I just, I'm just going to leave that. there. I felt like my life was becoming very much an obsession with work and an obsession with how

much more I could do. You know, I was doing, I'm still doing the psychology of your 20s. I was also doing mantra on my other podcast where there were more spiritual discussions going on and I love them both so much. But it is a lot to put your brain into. Like it is a lot of mental energy to create two things that you really love and promote a book and do all these other activities. as well. And I needed something else. And so my friend Sarah, I was at the park one day and she was running and I ran into her and she was like, do you just want to run with me for a little bit?

And I was like, yeah, okay, I'll do that. Ever since then, I've got the bug. I've got the freaking bug. And I've been posting about it on my personal Instagram a lot and you guys have been like, what the heck, how come you are suddenly running 15 kilometers when you used to say you hated running? It's because I've been going slow. I've been going super slow. I started at a pace that was probably like a walk or a jog and now I feel like I'm actually running. And I feel like through running as well, I've also been really testing my limits. I've been testing my ability to persevere and to endure and I've showed myself how strong I am and I've taught myself patience and I've taught myself consistency. There's just all these discoveries that I'm happening around.

the meaning of life that I'm figuring out through such simple acts, through moving my body in a way that so many other people have done for centuries, through sharing a bond with an animal, through connecting with people, through having new discussions. And I just finally feel like I'm out of this really dark cloud. Also, it's just been so wonderful to see how many of you have been reading my book. and how many of you are relating and resonating with it. I think it's been a while since I've really appreciated that I'm doing meaningful work. I think that I can be a little bit too self-deprecating.

Tell me if you're the same, where I'm like, if I acknowledge that I'm good at what I do or that I care about what I do or that maybe I have something to say, people are going to immediately cut me down for that. or that's entitlement or it will be taken away from me. The moment that you feel, I guess not grateful, but the moment that you take something for granted or that you assume that you're good at something or you assume that something is safe,

it will be up in the air. And I just have been reminded that that's not the case, that there are people who really want you to succeed and that it's okay to just say, like, I'm good at this thing and I care about this and I put a lot of work into it. and I'm proud of it. That's not bragging. That's not even a humble brag. That's just talking about the thing that you care about. I think all of this is just to say that I'm learning so much and I'm constantly being reminded that there is a lot of darkness in the world and life is really painful

sometimes, but you will come out on the other side and that you have handled it all. I'm grateful for the fact that this last year hasn't been amazing internally because every single day now that I wake up and I feel good, it's this weird thing of like, oh my gosh, like, wow, what a great day. What a great day. I've been having just like incredible days and I don't know how to express it. But I guess the whole purpose of this was just really to give you a story that makes you feel optimistic about your future. And just to give you the story of the last year of my life

that makes you feel that if you're going through something similar, you don't feel like you're always going to be here. And maybe you've heard that a million times before. Maybe you've heard the sentiment, life gets worse before it gets better, it's not always going to last, time heals, a million times over. But I think when there's a personal story attached to it, it really gives us hope. And when I was going through it, I guess I'm still on the tail end of going through it,

I just wanted to hear stories of people having hard times and persevering and knowing that you can change your mindset, you can change the way you think about your problems, you can get yourself unstuck, you will see a better day, you will have hope again, you will have belief again, and I don't know, it's just been a really, really nice feeling. And as I'm recording this, I am about to go to Fiji with my mom and with my auntie and with my cousin for our girls' trip. And this time last year, I was in Bali for our girls' trip last year. And I spent that whole trip basically crying and having panic attacks and just feeling so awful and so heavy and uncomfortable in my brain. and now I'm going into this trip one year later feeling not amazing but pretty remarkable

and feeling transformed and feeling like I've kind of I don't know I've I've kind of built a new part of my armor it sounds all like cliches and cheesy but that's really what I wanted to talk about today and thank you so much to you guys for supporting me I don't know if you've even noticed if anything's been different maybe you've noticed some more like existential themes in recent episodes but that's really where it's coming from and I'm hoping that I get a clean bill of health very, very soon or that at least I have an answer as to what's going on in my freaking brain and with my freaking eyeball. But I'm optimistic and I feel like life is good. I feel good. Take the good days. Love one another. Foster a dog. There you go. That's my life advice. But until next time,

make sure you are following me on Instagram at that psychology podcast. Thanks for sticking around for this life update. Tell me how you're going in the comments. Make this a two-way straight. I feel like I just dumped a lot of information on you if you've made it this far. Wow. Thank you for enduring all of that. And also, yeah, I want to hear what's been happening with you as well.

How are we feeling out of town? What's the emoji that best represents your life right now? Make sure you are following along. Make sure that you have left us a five-star review. if you feel called to do so. And remember to take care of yourself. Remember life gets better. Remember, it is all, it's not always meant to be great.

And it's not always going to be great, but it's always going to end up amazing. Until next time, stay safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself. We will talk very, very soon. 2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness,

and building resilience in our strange modern world. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's TWA% on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick you here, unpack what went down. and try to make sense of how we survived it with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors.

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with your favorite therapist and hosts Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor. It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hope. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Alesspian.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.