To say we live in uncertain times is probably the understatement of the decade, and the

problem with uncertainty is it makes us anxious.

But what if anxiety was actually good for us?

That's what Tracy Dennis Tawari thinks.

She's the author of Future Tense, why anxiety is good for you, even though it feels bad.

And we talked about how we can leverage our anxiety to build better relationships and

better manage all that uncertainty.

This is a bit of optimism.

Tracy, thank you so much for joining me.

I really appreciate it.

Well, thanks Sam, and I'm excited to be here with you.

Somebody sent me a video, a little clip of yours, that, of an interview you did on a virgin

radio, and you talked about re-understanding anxiety.

Given the anxious world that we live in for so many reasons, which I'm sure we'll get

into, I really wanted you to join me, and I wanted to learn more about how you interpret

anxiety, because your whole point of view is that anxiety is not necessarily negative.

And I think people believe that anxiety is always negative.

And always a disorder, or always a malfunction, or something's broken.

So let's start from the very beginning.

Biologically, anthropologically, why do we have anxiety?

I think of anxiety as literally the crown jewel of human evolution.

And go on, which no one likes to hear, because it's like selling people broccoli, you know,

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