Our mental “surge capacity” is maxed out - a podcast by Marketplace

For some, life is starting to resemble something like normal. Kids are going back to school, some offices are welcoming back workers… so why are we still feeling stressed?

Social psychologist Amy Cuddy says there are a couple reasons. For one, the pandemic has gone on for so long, our coping system known as “surge capacity” is now depleted.

“We then move into this regression phase where we withdraw, we get sad, agitated, we don’t want to hang out with people, we’re done with Zoom meetings. So it’s not surprising that we don’t have the capacity to feel intense positive emotions right now when we go out to that live concert,” Cuddy said.

And when you throw the coronavirus delta variant into the mix, things get even harder. Cuddy says right now it’s common for people to experience spikes in anxiety, depression and have a desire to escape. She refers to this as “pandemic flux syndrome.” That’s not a clinical term. But it is real.

On today’s show, Cuddy explains the role employers can play to help workers through this chapter of the pandemic.

Later in the show, we’ll discuss how Facebook is dealing with the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan and MacKenzie Scott reshaping the nonprofit world. Plus, a longtime listener calls in with an update on paying for his twin sons’ college education.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Why This Stage of the Pandemic Makes Us So Anxious” from Amy Cuddy in The Washington Post


• “Vaxed, waxed, but definitely not relaxed: Welcome to the pandemic swerve” from The Washington Post


• “The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War” from The Washington Post


• “She was the only member of Congress to vote against the war in Afghanistan. Some called her a traitor.” from The Washington Post


• “How social media is dealing with the Taliban takeover” from CNN


• “MacKenzie Scott’s Money Bombs Are Single Handedly Reshaping America” from Bloomberg

Read the transcript here.

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