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The Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey

Rewiring Your Brain for Hope: How to Overcome Cynicism with Dr. Jamil Zaki : 1197

The Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey

Dave Asprey

Fat, Health & Fitness, Meditation, Biohacking, Lifestyle, Diet, Science, Self-improvement, Fasting, Nutrition, Hacking, Fitness, Brain, Wellness, Education

4.6 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of The Human Upgrade, Dave Asprey welcomes Dr. Jamil Zaki, a professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. Dr. Zaki discusses the critical intersection between empathy, cynicism, and hope, exploring the impacts of negativity bias, cynicism in modern society, and how we can rewire our brains to become more hopeful. Drawing from his latest research and new book, Hope for Cynics, Dr. Zaki shares profound insights on human goodness, how we can challenge our biases, and the practices that can help us foster a more positive outlook on the world. 

Sponsors: 

  • Puori | Visit https://puori.com/dave and use code DAVE for 20% storewide.  
  • ARMRA | Go to https://tryarmra.com/ and use the code DAVE to get 15% off your first order.   


Resources: 

 

Timestamps and Highlights: 

  • 00:00:01 – Introduction by Dave Asprey 
  • 00:02:00 – Dr. Zaki on Cynicism and Empathy 
  • 00:05:30 – The Science Behind Empathy and Human Goodness 
  • 00:10:00 – The Impact of Negativity Bias on Decision-Making 
  • 00:15:00 – How to Overcome Cynicism Through Skepticism 
  • 00:20:30 – Practices to Foster Empathy and Optimism 
  • 00:30:00 – Understanding Cynicism in the Digital Age 
  • 00:35:00 – Building Hope in Relationships and Society 


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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to the human upgrade with Dave Asprey.

0:04.0

Man, today is going to be such a fun episode because we're going to talk about cynicism. You may have heard me say historically two

0:19.3

trolls that skeptics die something like six years ahead of people who are not skeptical.

0:26.7

And I've done so much work on myself at 40 years of Zen and in caves and monasteries around the world to not have a glass half full or half empty but to just have a glass with some stuff in it and to not judge it and being not a

0:47.2

polyanna where oh everything is so good but also not being the inverse of that, where everything is so bad, this has been

0:56.8

a path for me because I grew up in a family of skeptics.

1:00.8

My grandparents subscribed for many years to the Skeptip Inquirer, which is a magazine that did what

1:09.0

Snopes does or any of these other hater websites like, well, take down everyone who doesn't agree with whatever.

1:15.8

So I grew up a cynic and a skeptic and a skeptic and how would you like to learn from a professor of psychology

1:22.4

at Stanford University and a director of the

1:24.9

Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab who is an expert in cynicism and skepticism and

1:30.7

skepticism. I know I would like to learn and our guest is Dr.

1:36.0

Jamil Zaki who is that man. Jamil welcome to the show. It's great to be back

1:42.0

Dave. Man last time we talked you were you were in a little

1:48.0

COVID closet and let's open with that. How did you stop yourself from becoming very cynical after this government response to COVID and destruction of all these businesses, including a couple of mine.

2:03.8

Did that leave a mark on you or did you overcome it?

2:06.8

I did not stop myself from being cynical

2:09.5

during the pandemic.

2:10.6

In fact, I failed completely in that task and the reason that I started working on this book, Hope for Synics, is to figure out what was happening inside me.

2:23.0

As you know, Dave, I've studied the science of empathy, compassion, kindness for 20 years.

2:31.0

So you're kind of a stud that way.

2:32.0

I love that you're putting numbers and

...

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