Part Two: Johann Hari Reveals the Truth They Aren’t Telling You about Depression, GLP-1s and ADHD & Why Our Biology Is Not To Blame

Mayim Bialik's Breakdown

Mayim Bialik

Mental Health, Society & Culture, Wellness, Health & Fitness, Comedy, Thebigbangtheory, Spirituality, Selfimprovement, Mentalhealth

4.7 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is Big Pharma really healing us — or profiting from keeping us sick? NYT best-selling author Johann Hari (Stolen Focus, Lost Connections, Chasing the Scream, Magic Pill) returns with a powerful breakdown of the real causes of depression, anxiety, and the global attention crisis. Johann Hari reveals why only 2 of the 9 causes of depression are biological, exposing how Big Pharma, social media addiction, and modern lifestyle traps are fueling mental health issues. He dives into the dark rise of GLP-1 drugs (like Ozempic) and society’s toxic beauty obsession, while uncovering the overlooked role of sleep, community, and social connection in healing. Hari shares his personal experience with antidepressants, and explores how childhood shame and trauma drive addiction, weight gain, and despair. You’ll learn why even pets are being diagnosed with ADHD, what Silicon Valley insiders confessed about attention-hacking technology, and how our loss of focus is sabotaging relationships, careers, and democracy itself. If you’re ready to challenge the myths of mental health, regain your focus, and take back control of your mind, don’t miss this eye-opening conversation with Johann Hari. Check out all of Johann Hari's Books: ⁠https://johannhari.com/⁠ Our first episode with Johann Hari: ⁠https://youtu.be/JKFuI96biDU⁠ Follow us on Substack for Exclusive Bonus Content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bialikbreakdown.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠BialikBreakdown.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube.com/mayimbialik⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm I'm Bialik.
0:05.5	I'm Jonathan Cohen.
0:06.4	And welcome to part two of our conversation with Johann Hari, the author of, I mean, so many books,
0:12.8	lost connections about depression, chasing the scream, about addiction, stolen focus,
0:16.9	why you can't pay attention and how to think deeply again.
0:20.6	So many things that we've been told about depression, anxiety, ADHD are actually being,
0:25.7	in many cases, manipulated and co-opted by so many different aspects of industry that
0:34.0	Johan's going to speak to us about.
0:35.3	We break down some of the perverse incentive structures that are really hijacking our attention,
0:41.3	causing us to lose our focus, to be sick.
0:44.3	In many cases, these companies are knowingly producing products for their incentive structure.
0:51.3	And Yohan has an amazing perspective on this on.
0:55.1	And he also talks about cultures that don't have
0:57.6	these experiences of ADHD, places in the world
1:01.6	where these conditions don't appear
1:04.0	and what are the factors that are happening there
1:06.5	that we can really learn from.
1:08.6	He also has an amazing amount of hope about what it's going to take
1:12.4	to create the change in our world that will benefit all of us. I was so touched by the way
1:18.5	that he inspires us to create change. We're also going to spend some attention on how far
1:24.7	the ADHD conversation has gone. It has gone into conversations about medicating people's pets.
1:31.1	And we're going to talk about some of the implications about that and also what that looks like.
	...

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