James Kimmel on Revenge Addiction: Breaking Free and Regaining Control

Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life

Erik Fisher

Business, Entrepreneurship, Self-improvement, Careers, Education

4.5 • 875 Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

James Kimmel, author of The Science of Revenge, joins the show to unpack one of the most overlooked forms of distraction and emotional hijacking: revenge. Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, and decades of legal and public health research, James reveals how revenge isn’t just an emotional reaction—it’s an addictive cycle that can derail our focus, well-being, and relationships. If you’ve ever ruminated about a workplace slight, stewed in a sense of injustice, or mentally put someone “on trial,” this episode offers a powerful, science-backed path forward.

In this episode, we cover:

What Makes Revenge So Addictive: How grievances activate the same reward centers in the brain as drugs, gambling, and other addictive behaviors.
Revenge as a Productivity Killer: Why revenge always focuses on the past—and how it hijacks our mental and emotional bandwidth in the present.
The Courtroom in Your Head: James explains the mental trial many of us run daily, casting ourselves in all the roles—prosecutor, judge, jury, and warden.
Grievance vs. Reality: The neuroscience behind how imagined slights are often just as powerful as real ones.
Workplace Revenge Culture: How toxic tit-for-tat behavior spreads through teams and how leaders can disrupt it before it takes root.
Rewiring the Feedback Loop: How revenge follows the same cue-craving-reward cycle as other habits—and how to break it.
The Science of Forgiveness: Why forgiveness isn’t “soft,” but rather a neurological off-ramp from pain and rumination that reactivates the decision-making part of the brain.
The Wonder Drug in Your Brain: How practicing internal forgiveness shuts down pain networks and reduces stress, anxiety, and cortisol levels.
Practical Tools for Release: James shares how his free app helps users safely process their grievances through guided mental courtroom exercises.
Healing as Productivity: Why letting go doesn’t just make you feel better—it frees up your energy for purpose-driven work and emotional clarity.

Connect with James and his work at jameskimmel.com and find The Science of Revenge wherever books are sold.

Connect with Erik:

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is sponsored by Plaud, an AI wearable gadget that takes notes of meetings and calls.
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1:01.9	Code Beyond. Hello and welcome back to beyond the to-do list, a podcast about productivity.
1:24.5	I'm your host, Eric Fisher, and I'm excited to share a conversation I had with
1:28.7	James Kimmel. He's the author of the new book, The Science of Revenge. And I know what you're
1:33.8	thinking. Revenge? What does that have to do with productivity? Well, it's one of the most overlooked
1:39.6	forms of distraction and emotional hijacking. In other words, it's taking up parts of your brain
1:46.5	that are now not getting used to get stuff done.
1:49.5	We're talking about what makes revenge so addictive,
1:53.0	why revenge is a productivity killer,
1:55.5	the neuroscience behind how imagined slights
	...

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