Hurricanes, wildfires, and floods.

School shootings, the pandemic, a youth mental health crisis,

inflation and rising interest rates, the war in Ukraine.

Some days it seems like all the news is bad.

And some days it seems that this media stream of death, doom, and destruction is unavoidable.

Are you suffering from news overload?

Do you find yourself doom scrolling when you should be sleeping, eating, playing with your kids,

or doing your job?

Do you feel hounded by algorithms that keep sending you more bad news not only to your social news feed,

but to your email as well.

Why is it so hard to shut off the news spigot even when it's only making you feel stressed,

depressed, and anxious?

Is there anything you can do to control this constant barrage of news yet still be informed.

Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association

that explores the connections between psychological science and everyday life.

I'm Kim Mills.

I have two guests today to talk about news media overload. Dr. Marcus Brouwer is Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he directs the Brower Group Lab.

Research in his laboratory focuses on group and intergroup processes, including the consequences of belonging to high

and low-power groups and how belonging to in-groups and out-groups affects people.

Dr. Brower is also a co-author of a 2021 study that found consuming news about the COVID-19 pandemic

was associated with emotional distress, which we will talk about today.

Our second guest is Dr. Don Grant, a media psychologist, researcher, and an addictions counselor

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