Thinking8 min
The thought record
Put one anxious thought on trial and write the verdict you actually believe.
A podcast by Claire Myung
I'm Fine, Thanks
We all typically answer "I'm fine, thanks" when we're asked "How are you?", even during the times when we are not fine. This show challenges that by breaking down mental health therapies into simple, useful conversations anyone can easily follow. It's here to help you understand your mind, build resilience, and find the courage to actually feel okay.
80
episodes
42
book reviews
8
interviews
12+
hours
Newest episode
Episode 79: Why does rejection hurt so much?
Social pain runs on the same circuitry as physical pain. For a species that survived in groups, being left out once meant danger, and the brain has not updated.
Listen and reflectSeven series, one show
Pick a lane, or start at the beginning.
Every episode
Each one opens to a page with the big idea, takeaways, a practice to try tonight, and a journal prompt.
EmotionsEp 79
Why does rejection hurt so much?
Social pain runs on the same circuitry as physical pain. For a species that survived in groups, being left out once meant danger, and the brain has not updated.
10 minSep 6, 2026
EmotionsEp 78
Why does anxiety feel so physical?
Anxiety is a full-body alarm designed for lions, firing at emails. Knowing what each symptom is for makes it far less frightening.
8 minSep 6, 2026
EmotionsEp 77
Why do we get angry?
Anger is the body's threat response with the volume up. The brain detects a threat, real or symbolic, and prepares you to fight before you have decided anything.
8 minAug 30, 2026
BooksEp 76
Emotional Intelligence
Knowing what you feel, managing it, motivating yourself, reading others, and handling relationships predict success at least as well as IQ, and unlike IQ they can be learned.
10 minAug 30, 2026
InterviewsEp 75
Interview #8: Leanne Patterson-Shin on counseling and academic pressure
A school counselor on what academic pressure does to students, what actually helps, and what she wishes every teenager knew about asking for support.
28 minAug 29, 2026
BooksEp 74
Do Hard Things
Real toughness is not bravado. It is feeling the discomfort, listening to what it is telling you, and choosing your response anyway.
7 minAug 29, 2026
BooksEp 73
The Defining Decade
Your twenties are not a waiting room. Identity capital, weak ties, and deliberate choices made now compound into the life you will have at forty.
7 minAug 23, 2026
BooksEp 72
Hardwiring Happiness
The brain is Velcro for bad experiences and Teflon for good ones. Hanson's fix is to take in the good on purpose, for a few extra seconds, until it sticks.
7 minAug 22, 2026
BooksEp 71
The Brain That Changes Itself
The brain is not fixed hardware. It rewires in response to what you repeatedly do and attend to, at every age.
7 minAug 19, 2026
InterviewsEp 70
Interview #7: Jeongmin Kim on living with a Stoic mindset
A high schooler on how a two-thousand-year-old philosophy helps with exams, friendships, and setbacks. Control what you can, release what you cannot.
12 minAug 16, 2026
BooksEp 69
What Happened to You?
Change the question from "what's wrong with you?" to "what happened to you?" and behavior that looked like a character flaw starts to look like an adaptation.
7 minAug 15, 2026
BooksEp 68
The Age of Magical Overthinking
The mind's shortcuts evolved for small tribes and now run on infinite feeds. The result is a modern irrationality that feels like insight.
8 minAug 13, 2026
BooksEp 67
Set Boundaries, Find Peace
Burnout and resentment are usually boundary problems. A boundary is a clear statement of what you need, said out loud, and then honored by you.
9 minAug 11, 2026
BooksEp 66
Unwinding Anxiety
Anxiety is a habit loop: trigger, worry, brief relief, repeat. You do not break it by force. You break it by getting curious enough to notice the reward is not worth it.
9 minAug 9, 2026
InterviewsEp 65
Interview #6: Venerable Junhan Sunim on presence and Buddhist wisdom
A Buddhist monk on what it means to simply be, how awareness changes ordinary days, and why presence is a practice rather than a mood.
32 minAug 8, 2026
BooksEp 64
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
A therapist goes to therapy and discovers what her clients already knew: the stories we tell about ourselves are usually the thing standing in the way.
7 minAug 6, 2026
BooksEp 63
The Values Compass
Every culture carries a value it does better than anyone. Rai visited one hundred and one countries to collect them, and the collection doubles as a menu for your own life.
7 minAug 5, 2026
BooksEp 62
Grit
Talent counts once; effort counts twice. Grit, passion plus perseverance for long-term goals, predicts achievement better than ability.
7 minAug 4, 2026
BooksEp 61
The Confidence Code
Confidence is not a feeling you wait for. It is the residue of action taken before you felt ready.
7 minJul 31, 2026
InterviewsEp 60
Interview #5: Joon Paek on dopamine, habits, and the science of wellbeing
A biomedical researcher on what the science of dopamine actually says about everyday habits, and which changes are worth a student's limited energy.
11 minJul 30, 2026
BooksEp 59
Search Inside Yourself
Emotional intelligence can be trained like a muscle, and the training is attention. Tan built a mindfulness course inside Google to prove it.
8 minJul 29, 2026
BooksEp 58
Dopamine Nation
Pleasure and pain sit on the same scale. Tip it hard toward pleasure and the brain tips back toward pain. In a world of endless easy rewards, that is why we feel worse.
7 minJul 28, 2026
BooksEp 57
Mindset
Believing ability is fixed makes every challenge a verdict. Believing it can grow makes every challenge a workout. The belief, not the talent, predicts who improves.
7 minJul 26, 2026
InterviewsEp 56
Interview #4: Jean Paek on studying psychology in college
A college psychology student on the transition to university, what the coursework taught her about her own wellbeing, and what she wishes she had known in high school.
14 minJul 26, 2026
BooksEp 55
Emotional Agility
Difficult emotions are data, not directives. Emotional agility means showing up to them, stepping out of them, walking your why, and moving on.
9 minJul 24, 2026
BooksEp 54
Build the Life You Want
Happiness is not a destination but a direction, made of three ingredients: enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning. You can get happier without your circumstances changing.
8 minJul 21, 2026
BooksEp 53
The Sweet Spot
Chosen suffering, the hard run, the difficult project, the spicy food, is a source of meaning and even pleasure. A life optimized for comfort is a life with the meaning removed.
7 minJul 19, 2026
InterviewsEp 52
Interview #3: Jungeun You, founder of Mabo, on mindfulness
The founder of Korea's first guided meditation app on why pausing is a skill, how students can start, and what mindfulness looks like in a culture that rarely stops.
28 minJul 18, 2026
BooksEp 51
Real Self-Care
Bubble baths are faux self-care. Real self-care is boundaries, self-compassion, values, and power, and it is often uncomfortable.
8 minJul 17, 2026
BooksEp 50
Good Anxiety
Anxiety is an ancient protection system, not a malfunction. Channeled well, it sharpens focus, deepens empathy, and fuels action.
10 minJul 14, 2026
BooksEp 49
The Molecule of More
Dopamine is about wanting, not having. It lights up for what is next and goes quiet the moment you arrive, which is why more never feels like enough.
8 minJul 12, 2026
BooksEp 48
The Gifts of Imperfection
Worthiness has no prerequisites. Wholehearted people let go of what others think and lean into vulnerability, rest, play, and imperfection.
9 minJul 11, 2026
BooksEp 47
The Psychobiotic Revolution
Your gut and your brain talk constantly. Feeding the bacteria in one changes the mood in the other.
9 minJul 10, 2026
BooksEp 46
The Mountain Is You
Self-sabotage is not stupidity. It is a part of you meeting a need in the only way it knows. Find the need and the sabotage loses its job.
9 minJul 8, 2026
BooksEp 45
Attached
People move toward or away from closeness in predictable patterns. Knowing yours, and your partner's, explains most of the fights.
8 minJul 5, 2026
BooksEp 44
The Anxious Generation
Childhood moved from play-based to phone-based in a decade, and adolescent mental health fell off a cliff at the same time. Haidt argues that is not a coincidence.
8 minJul 4, 2026
BooksEp 43
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
The tools therapists use every day are learnable by anyone. Smith hands over a toolbox for bad days, anxiety, motivation, and self-doubt.
8 minJul 2, 2026
BooksEp 42
The Laws of Human Nature
Emotion decides and reason explains afterward. Understanding the forces that move people, including you, is the beginning of not being ruled by them.
9 minJun 30, 2026
InterviewsEp 41
Interview #2: Yasemin Bozoglu Erdinc on school culture and wellbeing
A teacher and parent on how much of student stress is environmental, and what adults can change about the culture around young people.
17 minJun 28, 2026
BooksEp 40
Four Thousand Weeks
You will never get everything done, because there is infinitely more to do than time to do it. Accepting that is where a real life starts.
9 minJun 25, 2026
BooksEp 39
Outlive
Living longer is not the goal; living well for longer is. Attia argues the emotional health chapter is the one that matters most, and the one he almost left out.
8 minJun 23, 2026
InterviewsEp 38
Interview #1: Russell Caynap on psychology and student wellbeing
A psychology teacher's view from the classroom: what stress actually looks like in students and which ideas from the discipline help most day to day.
22 minJun 21, 2026
BooksEp 37
Atomic Habits
You do not rise to your goals; you fall to your systems. Tiny, repeated actions compound into who you become.
8 minJun 20, 2026
BooksEp 36
Stolen Focus
Your attention is not failing you; it is being taken. The environment is engineered for distraction, and attention is how you experience your one life.
7 minJun 18, 2026
BooksEp 35
Deep Work
Focus is a skill, and it is becoming rare. The ability to work without distraction for a stretch is both valuable and trainable.
7 minJun 14, 2026
BooksEp 34
The Body Keeps the Score
Trauma is not just a memory; it is a body that still believes the danger is present. Healing has to involve the body, not only the story.
8 minJun 13, 2026
BooksEp 33
The Myth of Normal
Much of what we call illness is a sane response to an insane pace. Maté asks us to stop asking what is wrong with people and start asking what happened to them and what is happening around them.
8 minJun 9, 2026
BooksEp 32
The Untethered Soul
There is a voice in your head that never stops narrating. You are not that voice. You are the one listening, and remembering that changes everything.
8 minJun 7, 2026
BooksEp 31
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Two systems run your mind: a fast, automatic one that jumps to conclusions and a slow, effortful one that checks. Most errors come from letting the fast one drive unsupervised.
9 minMay 31, 2026
BooksEp 30
Man's Search for Meaning
Frankl survived the camps and concluded that people can endure almost any how if they have a why. Meaning is not found in comfort; it is chosen, even in suffering.
8 minMay 24, 2026
BooksEp 29
The Power of Now
The past and future exist only as thoughts. Nearly all suffering comes from living in them instead of the present, which is the only place life actually happens.
8 minMay 17, 2026
BooksEp 28
Atlas of the Heart
You cannot work with a feeling you cannot name. Brown maps eighty-seven emotions so that "bad" can become "disappointed," "resentful," or "lonely," each of which asks for something different.
7 minMay 11, 2026
BooksEp 27
10% Happier
A skeptical news anchor has a panic attack on live television and ends up finding that meditation makes him about ten percent happier. Modest, honest, and enough.
8 minMay 3, 2026
BooksEp 26
Introduction to book reviews
A single idea from a book can change how you see yourself for years. The book club exists to find those ideas and hand them over.
5 minApr 26, 2026
MeditationEp 25
Choosing the right meditation for you
There is no best meditation, only the one you will actually do. Match the practice to your temperament and your goal.
7 minApr 19, 2026
MeditationEp 24
Deeper layers of meditation
Beyond the basics, traditions diverge: Zen sits with nothing, Vipassana watches everything, Transcendental repeats, visualization builds. Each trains a different muscle.
7 minApr 12, 2026
MeditationEp 23
Loving-kindness meditation
Kindness is a skill you can train, starting with the person you are hardest on: yourself.
7 minApr 5, 2026
MeditationEp 22
Body scan meditation
The body knows you are stressed before you do. A body scan teaches you to read the signal early.
6 minMar 29, 2026
MeditationEp 21
Breathing meditation
The breath is the one part of the stress response you can steer directly. Slow the exhale and the body follows.
6 minMar 22, 2026
MeditationEp 20
Mindfulness meditation
Most suffering happens in the past or the future. Mindfulness is the skill of returning to the only moment that is actually here.
7 minMar 15, 2026
MeditationEp 19
Meditation basics
Meditation is not emptying the mind. It is noticing where the mind went and coming back, over and over. The coming back is the rep.
7 minMar 8, 2026
Study scienceEp 18
Temptation bundling
Pair something you want with something you should. The pleasure pulls the task along.
7 minMar 1, 2026
Study scienceEp 17
Implementation intentions
"I'll exercise more" is a wish. "When I get home on Tuesday, I'll put on my shoes and walk for ten minutes" is a plan the brain can execute.
6 minFeb 22, 2026
Study scienceEp 16
Active recall
Pulling information out of your head strengthens memory far more than putting it in again. Testing yourself is studying.
6 minFeb 15, 2026
Study scienceEp 15
Spaced repetition
Forgetting is not failure; it is the signal your brain uses to decide what matters. Revisit something right before you forget it and it sticks.
6 minFeb 8, 2026
Study scienceEp 14
The Pomodoro technique
The brain focuses better with a finish line in sight. Twenty-five minutes of full attention beats two hours of half attention.
7 minFeb 1, 2026
TherapiesEp 13
Animal-assisted therapy
Animals offer presence without judgment. That combination calms the body faster than most words can.
7 minJan 25, 2026
TherapiesEp 12
Creative therapy
Some feelings do not have words yet. Art, music, and movement give them a way out before language catches up.
6 minJan 18, 2026
TherapiesEp 11
Supportive therapy
Being genuinely heard is not the warm-up to therapy. Sometimes it is the therapy.
7 minJan 11, 2026
TherapiesEp 10
Family therapy
A family is a system. Change one person's move and the whole pattern shifts.
7 minJan 4, 2026
TherapiesEp 9
Group therapy
Hearing someone else say the thing you thought only you felt is its own kind of medicine.
7 minDec 28, 2025
TherapiesEp 8
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)
Low mood is not the problem. The rumination that piles on top of it is. Noticing the thought as a thought interrupts the pile-on.
7 minDec 21, 2025
TherapiesEp 7
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
A memory that was never fully processed stays live in the body. EMDR helps the brain file it as past rather than present.
7 minDec 14, 2025
TherapiesEp 6
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
You do not have to win the argument with your mind. You can let the thought be there and still move toward what matters.
7 minNov 30, 2025
TherapiesEp 5
Interpersonal therapy (IPT)
Mood and relationships move together. IPT treats low mood by working directly on the relationships around it.
6 minNov 23, 2025
TherapiesEp 4
Psychodynamic therapy
Patterns formed in early relationships tend to repeat in later ones. Seeing the pattern is what gives you the freedom to choose differently.
7 minNov 7, 2025
TherapiesEp 3
Exposure therapy
Avoidance keeps fear alive. Facing a feared thing in small, planned steps teaches the nervous system that the alarm is louder than the danger.
6 minNov 5, 2025
TherapiesEp 2
Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)
Acceptance and change are not opposites. DBT teaches you to hold both at once: this is how I feel, and I can still act skillfully.
7 minOct 21, 2025
TherapiesEp 1
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are a loop. Change the thought you are running and the feeling that follows changes too.
7 minOct 12, 2025
Start hereEp 0
I'm Fine, Thanks
"I'm fine" is a reflex, not a report. The show begins by asking what happens when you slow down long enough to answer honestly.
5 minSep 21, 2025
Pulled from the show
The frameworks worth keeping
The techniques Claire returns to, written as steps with the episode and the therapist who uses each one.
Emotions5 min
Wise mind
Find the overlap between what you feel and what you know.
Emotions15 min
The fear ladder
Break a fear into rungs and climb one at a time.
The days you answered "fine" on autopilot3 min
"I'm fine, actually"
- 1.Write the question: how am I, actually?
- 2.Answer in three sentences. The first one is allowed to be "fine."
- 3.The second and third are not.
If I answered "how are you?" completely honestly right now, I would say...
The podcast's founding questionEp 0
A worry that will not stop repeating8 min
Thought record
- 1.Situation, in one neutral line.
- 2.The exact thought and how strongly you believe it.
- 3.Evidence for. Evidence against.
- 4.A balanced sentence you believe more.
The thought that keeps showing up today is...
Cognitive behavioral therapyEp 1
Listening to doing
Take an episode into a session
Every episode links to the therapist whose approach fits. Sign in, and the prompt at the end of each page opens straight into your journal.
New episodes appear here as they are released.