Stop the doomscroll spiral – meet the people living through the existential threats that keep us up at night, and the ones trying to solve them

When your feed is filled with crushing news, conspiracy theories and existential threats (climate change who?), life can seem pretty overwhelming.

But that’s why in Doomscroll Remedy, we’re going deeper in an attempt to better understand how we got ourselves into this mess and what we can do to get out of it.
 
It’s for that knot in your gut – yeah, we feel it too – when you’re stuck on an endless stream of terrible news and you’re not quite sure how to get off the doomscroll death spiral.

You’ll get a glimpse into the lives of people on the front lines of the curliest issues – and meet the people trying to solve them.

Don't throw your phone through the wall – seek solace in your podcast app instead.

+++

Doomscroll Remedy is a University of Queensland podcast, produced by Deadset Studios.

Hosted by Stephen Stockwell. Produced by Grace Pashley, Krissy Miltiadou and Rachel Fountain at Deadset Studios, with consulting producer Zoe McDonald and commissioning editor Greta Usasz at The University of Queensland.  

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.  

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:09):
worldwide, the equivalent of one rubbish truck
of plastic waste is being dumpedinto the ocean. Every minute.
There's no shortage of doomfilling our feets at the moment,
our conspiracy theory could makeits way into the halls of
Congress after the electionrule, just looking for a way to
make sense of things that keepus awake at night, the worst
fire season ever recorded,and apocalypse and nightmare,

(00:29):
and like looking into the gatesof hell,
but don't worry, it's not justus up until 3am. Scrolling under
the covers, it's, well, most ofus. I'm Stephen Stockwell. And
this is Doom scroll remedy, apodcast from the University of
Queensland where we meet thepeople who are living through

(00:50):
the existential threats thatkeep us up at night. And the
researchers from UQ we're tryingto solve them.
For example, in California, yousee, bulldozers tipped over by
fire, tornadoes,are we going to start seeing
more and more of those kinds offires? Do you think a lot
of that will depend on on howour climate changes as we move
into the future.

(01:11):
We'll also look at how badplastics are for our health.
I think we've been quite naivein terms of how we've dealt with
plastic and how we let itcontaminate, I guess, every
sphere of the environment,we dive into other threats that
are harder to pin down, like therise of conspiracy theories.
In the years since he's movedoverseas, he's become very

(01:31):
interested in conspiracytheories, and what I would
consider conspiracy theories,what he considers a very
emotional reality.
And I mean, all of this is alot, the world's a lot. So we'll
unpack anxiety and why thismight be something we're feeling
more and morehuman beings are unique to the
best of our knowledge on thisplanet by virtue of our capacity
to live in the future. Butthere's a cost to living in the

(01:52):
future. And that's envisioningall the things that can go
wrong.
We got ourselves into thesesituations. Now we find out how
to get ourselves out of them.
We will come up with answers andwe'll make them happen. Because
Steven, we have to, we cannotfail. We just cannot fail.

(02:15):
How worried? Do you think Ishould be at the moment? How
worried are you?
I am concerned but you can't beso concerned that it absolutely
freezes you.
The world is not in great shaperight now. So instead of looking
for silver bullets, magic wandsand other fictitious cures,
we're going to give you someactual hope by introducing you
to the people who are chippingaway at these huge problems one

(02:38):
day at a time. Doom squareremedy is a University of
Queensland podcast produced bydeadset studios. Follow us
wherever you get your podcastsfirst episode out soon.