October 7, 2025 • 30 mins
The data is sobering: more teens feel worse on social, and more parents are deeply worried. We’re feeling it too. So we decided to get honest about what constant feeds are doing to our minds, our families, and our definition of success—and how we can take our brains back. With health and wellness coach (and mom of two) Hali Laricey, we trace the shift from closed-door news to 24/7 urgency and finally to algorithms that personalize our anxieties. We talk about phones as pocket computers, how “infinite scroll” reshapes attention, and why the right word might not be destruction but manipulation—small nudges that tilt behavior until mood, motivation, and self-worth bend in quiet ways.
We share real stories: a teen’s innocent search turning into a harmful rabbit hole; a business owner’s feed pushing hustle and status until year-end depression creeps in; and the surprising relief of camping with internet available but deliberately unused. Then we get practical. Hallie walks through boundaries that held up under pressure—no devices in bedrooms, delayed phones, and even a single shared “house phone” kids borrow when needed. We unpack tools adults can use too: deleting one app for a week, moving icons off the home screen, cutting notifications, charging phones outside the bedroom, and replacing doom scrolling with simple anchors like walks, journaling, or family game nights.
Along the way, we challenge the myth that you must be online to succeed and offer a saner metric: success as being surrounded by love. That mindset lowers the temperature on comparison, strengthens real relationships, and supports a calmer nervous system. If you’ve been looking for a clear, compassionate plan to protect attention, rebuild presence, and help kids grow real-world skills, this conversation gives you evidence, language, and steps you can use tonight.
If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s struggling with screens, and leave a quick review so more people can hear it. Your support helps us stop manipulation—and build unshakeable brains.
Note: This podcast episode is sponsored by Dr. Rewire's Brain DNA test. Learn more at Unshakeablebrain.ai. If you're a practitioner and you're interested in adding this at-home lab test to your toolkit, go to Unshakeablebrain.ai/expert.
I, Dr. Kylie, no longer work with clients in any endeavor. If you'd like more support for your health, I recommend working with the physicians at the EllieMD telemedicine platform. To get started, go to https://elliemd.com/?bp=drkylie. For health and wellness experts looking to provide this resource to your clients, get started at https://elliemd.com/join-us/?bp=drkylie.
Thank you for joining the Unshakeable Brain community. Dr. Kylie
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:06):
About one in five US teens say social media hurts
their mental health.
Almost 50% say social media hasa mostly negative effect on
people their age, which is upfrom 2022.
In 2022, they said it was only32%, and now it's almost 20%
(00:27):
higher.
US parents are also moreworried.
In one survey, over half reportbeing very or extremely
concerned about teen mentalhealth.
And many of them see socialmedia as a major negative
influence.
So today I have a mama.
(00:49):
We're both mamas, actually.
We have I have a mama with uswho we're gonna dive into this
teenage mental health and socialmedia aspect.
Welcome to Unsake ShakableBrain, your guide to an
unshakable brain.
I'm your host, Dr.
Kylie, and my mission is simpleto help you grow a brain that's
(01:09):
stronger, sharper, andunshakable in every part of your
life.
Each week we explore thescience, stories, and strategies
that make to make that happen.
This episode is brought to youby Dr.
Rewire's brain DNA test.
Find out more atunshakablebrain.ai.
Let's dive in.
All right, Hallie.
Welcome aboard.
This is Miss, this is our coach,Hallie Legacy.
(01:31):
She is a health and wellnesscoach as well as a mom of two.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (01:38):
Thank you, Dr.
Kylie.
It's so great to be here withyou today to talk about
unshakable brains and how we canget them because they're pretty
shaken up at this point.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
They're very shaken up, which is one of the reasons
why I needed to start thispodcast, is because let's have
some real conversations, sharesome real stories and some
tricks, science, tips to help usbecome unshakable.
Our brains become unshakable ina manner of that's that's goes
(02:08):
deeper than dementia,Alzheimer's.
Like we don't, we're not worriedabout those.
We want to have our brains bethe best they can be at every
stage of life.
And I know how social media hasaffected me.
You've seen it with your kids.
(02:29):
As a mom, what do you what doyou find most worrisome about
social media?
SPEAKER_00 (02:37):
Well, I want to back up a little bit and go back to
when I was younger, when I wasmy kid's age.
Well, actually, even beforethat, really, you know, I grew
up in a time when Watergate wason the news.
And my grandparents watched it,and we were not allowed in the
(03:02):
room.
It wasn't for young minds toprocess.
It we were told to go outsideand play and do other things, do
puzzles and things like that.
But the Watergate room was offlimits.
And I remember my grandfatherbeing in there for hours
(03:22):
watching the proceedings.
And we never heard anythingabout it because it really we we
just our brains were not meantto process that sort of
information.
Like it was too mature.
You know, we were supposed tofocus on immature things like
going outside and playing in thedirt and and running around and
(03:45):
playing kickball and all ofthose kinds of things.
My how far we've come since theWatergate uh trials with 24-hour
news.
That's something else thatreally changed the dynamic for
children's brains, parents'brains, for every age brain that
(04:10):
there is.
The 24-hour news channel, youknow, people can pretty much say
whatever they want to on camera,and it stimulates our brains.
We have to process then processthat information and figure out
where it goes in our brain.
And so we have this constantpull and tug on our brain to
(04:34):
process stuff that it was nevermade to process, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01 (04:38):
At a very early age, too.
SPEAKER_00 (04:40):
At a very early age.
And you know, when parents arebombarded, you know, when you
have babies at home and you're astay-at-home mom and the 24-hour
news is going on, you know,you're taking all of that in,
and it affects you whetheryou're distracted or sad or you
(05:02):
know, excited.
I I remember, do you rememberthe bubble that that balloon
thing that they thought thechild was in?
Do you remember that?
Like I don't remember that.
Okay, it was like 10 years ago.
I'm sure you can find it onGoogle.
But there was a a balloon in theair that was flying around.
(05:24):
It was like a self-made balloon,and the parents were concerned
that their child was in there.
It overtook every news outletthat there was.
I, for one, was standing by theTV, petrified that there was a
child in this balloon.
Come to find out aftereverything was said and done
(05:46):
that there was no child in theballoon.
The parents did it for apublicity stunt.
And I remember that dayeverything changing for me about
how I was going to process allof this information that was
thrown at me nonstop.
But anyway, fast forward tosocial media.
(06:07):
Now you've got 24-hour newschannels and you've got all the
social media stuff.
You've got Instagram, you've gotTikTok, you've got Facebook,
you've got threads or thread,whatever it's called.
You know, you've got all ofthese things, stuff I don't even
know.
Yeah, X, that's right.
Yeah.
Which used to be Twitter, right?
And half of it I don't even knowhow to use.
(06:30):
But my kids do.
My kids know how to use it.
And I I remember back in the daywhen my kids were young too.
You know, I said no computers inthe bedroom.
That was like a narrator.
Yeah.
No computers in the bedroom.
And they're older now, ofcourse, but and they still
(06:52):
aren't allowed to have computersin their bedroom.
But this device is a computer.
SPEAKER_01 (06:59):
Yes, ma'am.
Yes, ma'am.
Those phones, these phones thatwe all have, that does
everything we need, a computerto do.
SPEAKER_00 (07:07):
Yeah.
And it also, it's it's got somany things in it to train us to
be more and more dependable onit.
So instead of the kids justsaying, you know, hey, can I get
TikTok on my my phone?
You know, and you're like, no,no, no.
And then like two weeks later,they're like, hey, I gotta have
my phone in my room because Ineed the alarm clock.
(07:30):
Or, you know, fill in the blank,whatever the reason is.
And I've stood my ground for areally long time.
Now my kids are 18, almost 19and 20.
And, you know, I hope that I'veraised them to make good
decisions on their own.
(07:51):
But if I were a mom today, myadvice would be to hold off on
giving your kid a phone or evenusing your phone.
I mean, I see toddlers in thegrocery store all the time with
their mom's phone or an iPad,and they're just going to town
(08:13):
looking at stuff.
And I say all that to say, Ibring it back to you, our brains
were not made to process thisoverload of stimulation and
information at a young age.
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Well, I am now 36, and I don't think my brain is
made to process all this.
And you have you and I have hadchats before where it's like
we're we're running businessesand we've been trained to
believe that in order to have aquote unsuccessful or successful
(08:54):
unquote business, we have to beon social media.
Yeah.
I don't believe in 2025 thatthat is true.
In fact, one of the biggestpodcasts I know, I've had an
interview with him on the on aprevious podcast, but he got
kicked off social media.
The man's doing just fine.
(09:17):
He just has his podcast and it'sgone big after what he shared
was going on in 2020 inAustralia with stage like the
hotel, not the hotels, thehospitals were being staged for
the media to come in and lieabout COVID.
(09:38):
So it begs to differ.
Like it doesn't matter how oldyou what your age is, how old or
young you are.
Are we destroying our minds, ourbrains through this constant
access of social media, constantaccess of YouTube, constant
access of every streaming deviceknown under mankind?
(10:01):
Like there are so many differentstreaming services out there.
Easton's always asking, he iseight now, and he's always
asking, you know, can I get thissubscription?
He doesn't know that they'resubscriptions, but he's like,
Mom, I want to do crunch crunchlabs.
I'm like, okay, well, that costsmoney every single month.
It might just be 1999, but it'sstill money every single month.
(10:23):
Netflix, Hulu, like I don't evenknow all of them that are out
there.
Peacock, because we only do oneof them.
And he knows that just becauseit's a little bit of money every
single month, that little bit ofmoney adds up.
And I would rather him put moneyelsewhere in other places.
So we've had that community,that conversation of making a
(10:45):
boundary and saying, okay, weneed to limit access.
They have gab phones and gabwatches for kids.
You know, what if we started atrend that was gab watch for
adults too?
Yeah.
Gab phones for adults too.
And I've been wrapping my mindaround this thought of okay, if
(11:09):
I don't want my kids on socialmedia, why am I on social media?
So I can look back over thispast summer and I can see how I
did not have cell phone service.
We had Starlink up at camp whenwe camp at 10,000 feet in the
mountains here in Utah, wherethere's no service, and it's
(11:32):
glorious.
We had Starlink up there.
I intentionally did not connectto it.
I didn't want that accessibilityon my phone.
And I saw how much more presentI was with not just my kids, but
it wasn't like my mind was somuch more protected.
(11:52):
My brain wasn't receivinginformation that I had to
process 24-7.
And especially as we we've beentrained to scroll, yeah, and
we've been trained to flip andreceive that stimulation
constantly.
So my my thought is is if I didit all summer long when we went
camping on as many times as wewent camping, why am I still
(12:17):
doing it when I have service?
What would be the consequencesof me just eliminating all
social media from my phone?
Yeah.
I think I'm gonna pull thetrigger on it.
Yeah.
Because it's not worth if we'rehere talking about an unshakable
brain, yeah, that is one thingthat is destroying the most
(12:41):
important thing, I think,destroying brains, whether
you're 36 or 6 or 86.
SPEAKER_00 (12:51):
Yeah.
You know, you you bring up areally good point too when you
said about protecting your brainwhen you were at 10,000 feet.
There were the and I'm surethey're ongoing, the lawsuits
that are ongoing, but a fewyears ago I watched a segment on
one of the news programs thatsome parents were suing Meta
(13:13):
because their daughter justhappened on Instagram to like
search some type of food orsomething like that that was
linked to weight loss.
And one rabbit hole led toanother, to another, to another,
and then all of a sudden, 90% ofher feed was about food and not
(13:38):
eating, and it led to anorexia.
And the parents blame Meta andrightly so.
I mean, now that was a few yearsago, but now, and you can call
me a conspiracy theorist if youwant, but our phones are always
(13:59):
listening to us, our computersare always listening to us.
I mean, I've said like onecomment.
Oh, my daughter, oh, she got herwisdom teeth pulled in June, and
she was very, you know, nervousabout it and everything.
And she was trying to figure outways so she didn't have to take
the pain meds.
She does not like any medicationever.
(14:21):
And she found out somethingabout pineapple juice that it
could help with those, you know,the with the inflammation and
the pain.
And so she was kind of likesearching that and she said,
Mom, my whole feed everywhere isabout getting your wisdom teeth
pulled.
And some of the videos werequite graphic.
(14:42):
And of course, she had to shieldher eyes and decide not to watch
that.
But your point in being at10,000 feet and dec 10,000 feet
and deciding to be present andengaged in the moment with your
family.
There there's no room for all ofthat distraction and assault of
(15:06):
negative, bloody images thathave nothing to do with what
you're interested in.
Not now, not ever.
And you cannot unsee something.
All you have to do is go, youknow, on social media and you
can see lots of blood and goreand all of the things.
And those are the things thatreally concern me too about
(15:30):
protecting this unshakable brainfor our kids because that trauma
is not so easily erased.
Having them feel unsafe at homeor in public is not good for
their brain because they'reconstantly on edge.
(15:50):
They're they're scared, they'renervous, they're anxious,
they're having panic attacks.
So and that doesn't only affecttheir brain, that affects their
bodies.
Some of them, like the girl withthe anorexia, you know, some of
them can't eat because they'rethey're so afraid of what's out
(16:10):
there in the real world.
But what their their minds andtheir brains and their wisdom
and their experience doesn't letthem know is that that was just
a small example of somethingthat happened.
This isn't the norm that's outthere.
But social media presents it ina way like, oh, this is the
(16:31):
norm.
You better be careful.
And I'm not saying you shouldn'tbe careful.
Yes, you should be careful, butbut you know what I'm saying?
It's like it's this constantneed to process this unhealthy
information.
SPEAKER_01 (16:46):
You're giving a good example.
I can think of another one.
Um, when I started my businessin 2018, and as I put on my
profile, like owner of or CEOof, that starts feeding you all
of these business things.
Uh, I look back now and Iprobably would have been
(17:07):
classified as depressed.
The end of every single year,when I look back at what I did
in my business, it wasn't goodenough compared to what I was
seeing on social media.
I don't give a crap about cars.
Cars don't rejuvenate me, theydon't motivate me, they don't
like I will drive a Toyota forthe rest of my life.
(17:27):
I don't care.
As long as it gets me from pointA to point B and I can trust it.
That's what matters.
But I'm seeing all these, these,you know, influencers, quote, in
quotes, or people that I thoughtI should look up to in business
with flashy cars and yachts andand the things that the world
(17:49):
deems as successful.
I saw on uh a post yesterday bySimon Squibb when he's going
around and interviewing peopleabout what is their dream.
And what the one interviewer, heprobably had to be in his
mid-20s, if I was guessing.
(18:10):
He asked, Simon asked him whatsuccess meant.
Because he said, I want to be asuccess.
And so Simon asked, Well, whatdoes success mean to you?
And he said, Being surrounded bylove.
Yeah.
And he said, putting a monetaryvalue on success is wrong.
unknown (18:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:40):
Success is being surrounded by people you love
and that they love you for you.
And I thought, man, that kid'swon the lottery.
He understands that in mid-20s.
I wish I understood that.
I wish I was surrounded by morepeople who understood that.
Not being fed other things onsocials about how it's never
(19:03):
your business is never goodenough.
You should always be wanting toscale it and grow it.
And that's where I'm coming atwhen I'm making the decision.
Like, is it even worth being onit anymore?
Is it destroying my brain thatmuch?
And I believe it is.
And I'm 36.
And I've got an eight-year-oldand a five-year-old and a
(19:25):
two-year-old.
And I'm like, I don't want tosee them ever, like ever on it.
I hope in a decade it's verydifferent, or in five years,
like I'll give them a gab watch,and that's gonna be the thing.
And if they want to know why momhas one of these phones, well,
I'll switch to a gab phone too.
Like, because seeing when Ijoined Facebook in 2008 and
(19:48):
where it's gone to now, it's notworth it.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And and maybe destroying is adifferent word, not the right
word.
I would rather say manipulating.
SPEAKER_00 (20:09):
That's a good word.
Yeah, that's a good word.
Because it's true.
I mean, that's why I'm soexcited about your passion for
backing things up.
Let's let's own our brainhealth.
Let's let's decide that we'regonna be an overperformer based
(20:30):
on our drive and what we want toaccomplish in life, not compared
to what everyone else is doing.
You know, when you said that thesuccess is love, that is so
true.
You look at all of theseinfluencers who one day they're
smiling on the camera, and thenext day you hear they committed
suicide.
(20:51):
It's just it's heartbreaking.
And then we could have a wholenother conversation about the
connection between the heart andbrain.
Let's do it.
We got time.
I mean, the brain affectseverything, right?
The the gut, the heart, iteverything is so beautifully
interconnected in our lives.
(21:12):
But we've talked about beforemost of the modalities out there
uh treat uh the neck below, youknow, and not the neck above,
which is the head, the brain,and all the things that is
included in the brain, you know,the the thyroid.
I mean, it's it's all talking uhbeautifully to itself, or it
(21:36):
should be.
And we just we got to find thatthat way to take our brains back
and and own own our futures andnot just give up to this some
sometimes I consider it kind oflike a robotic atmosphere.
You know, there's lots ofdocumentaries out there about
social media and what's going onbehind the scenes that they have
(21:59):
ways to keep the kids connected.
You know, they could be asleepin the middle of the night and
they wake up and they thinkabout something that they missed
or whatever, and they get backon.
But that's the whole goal,that's the whole plan.
So if their brains areconstantly stimulated in that
area, it cannot be healthy inthose other areas like school,
(22:21):
learning, life lessons, all ofthose things, because what's
teaching them all of that isthis fake world of social media
and comparing themselves toeveryone else.
It's not healthy.
SPEAKER_01 (22:37):
That's destructive, manipulative.
SPEAKER_00 (22:39):
Manipulative, I like to put it in that.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:43):
Okay.
As we uh finish up here, there'sa mom seeing your teenagers as
the with the introduction ofsocial media to now.
Could you think of a story ortwo that you'd like to share
with the audience?
SPEAKER_00 (23:04):
Well, well, I don't know if this is the kind of
story that you're looking for,but I will say that I was that
mom that my kids did not likevery much when all of their
friends had phones, Facebook,Instagram, X, which was then
(23:26):
Twitter, you know, all thethings, especially when you
know, we we were in homeschoolgroups because we homeschooled
for a time.
Then when they were in schooland they were doing sports, they
had all of these group me's andall of these other apps that of
(23:46):
course if you don't have aphone, you can't have the app.
But I stood my ground and Isaid, you know what?
I have a phone.
I will be the intermediary, Iwill be the go-between.
And I'm so glad that I did thatbecause yes, it was hard, and
(24:09):
they they were mad, they werefrustrated and all of that.
But I will never know theimpact, the long-term impact
that I saved them from.
You know, and I had to wear mythick skin, and my husband
supported me, and and he waslike, you know, yeah, I agree
(24:29):
with you and all of that, butyou know, the the conversations
come very early about mom, I'mthe only one without a phone.
I, you know, forever's a longtime to be wrong.
If you give them that phone tooearly, it's impossible to take
it away.
It's a whole lot easier towithhold it and give it to them
(24:53):
much later when you feel likethey can handle it.
I think the environment hascreated this place where it's
like, like you said, you know,the parents are on social media,
the parents are doing all theseother things, and it's a way to
keep the kids entertained.
And that's what the phone andand all of the social stuff and
all of the apps and everythinghas become is entertainment.
(25:16):
One of the reasons why I lovewhat you're doing, taking back
our brain space and theunshakable brain is you know,
let's find healthier ways toentertain than social media.
Let's get back outside, let'splay games, let's play in the
dirt, let's go camping at 10,000feet, get on Starlink and check
out and be present.
(25:36):
We're not present anymore.
And it's the generations belowus that are gonna, you know,
really feel the effect of that,in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01 (25:46):
I watch as supposedly, of course, this is
on socials, but millions ofpeople, it says, have
unsubscribed from Disney Plus.
Yeah.
Because they brought in JimmyFallon.
Is that who it was?
SPEAKER_00 (26:04):
Well, they canceled Jimmy Kimmel, right?
SPEAKER_01 (26:06):
Jimmy Kimmel, yeah.
It was it's not Jimmy Fallon,yeah.
Jimmy Kimmel.
Yes, they cancel him, and thenDisney Disney brought him in,
and now people are you knowdropping Disney like flies.
At least that's what the postsaid.
That's what they say.
So I think like you just have tomake a stance because I I don't
(26:30):
I don't want my kids on social,like I want them to avoid that
like like crazy.
And even Easton, who's who's inthird grade, all of his
classmates and his friends, theyall walk with their gab watches
and their gab phones, and andthat's fine because it doesn't
have socials on it, but he'sstill asking for a phone.
(26:50):
And I think one of the best waysto say you don't need social is
well, mom, why are you on itthen?
So if we're not even on itourselves, yeah, we're
protecting our brains and we'reprotecting the next generation.
I agree.
So good on you for delayingthat.
Thank you.
(27:12):
I do have a neighbor who sharedwith me what their rule is with
phones, and I think we can sharethat here.
Is they have one Gab phone forall the kids.
And when they go, like say theygo to a soccer game or they go
somewhere where the one personneeds the phone, it's like the
household phone that is nowmobile rather than the household
(27:33):
phone being connected to thewall.
It's something that they havethe one phone that they can
share when it's necessary.
I love that.
SPEAKER_00 (27:41):
That is great because you know, another side
of this too, Dr.
Kylie, is that children don'tknow how to interact with adults
anymore.
And part of that has fallen awaybecause you've got all of these
kids that have their own phones,and so they're talking and
texting to each other.
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
Don't even know how to interact with each other.
They that's true.
Like, how many times have yougone to a restaurant on a date
with your husband and you seesomebody else on a date with
their spouse, and they're bothsitting on phones, and you
think, Wow, that's a greatmarriage.
They don't even know how tocommunicate, they're literally
sitting there by them bythemselves, like with just each
(28:18):
other looking in their screen.
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (28:21):
Yeah, yeah, but I mean is addiction.
It is addiction, and how nicewould it be for someone to call
your house and say, Hi, Dr.
Kylie, this is Stephen.
Is Easton there?
May I speak with him, please?
Kids don't know how that, youknow, they would rather wait
outside.
Okay, when they come over here,they would rather wait outside
(28:44):
and wait for whatever childthey're here to see to come out
there and get them and escortthem in the house.
Because I mean, it's notnecessarily that I'm scary
because I'm not scary, but youknow, it's just like that.
Oh, it's gonna be awkward with aparent.
And it it was never awkward forus, or actually, if it was
awkward when I was growing up,you pushed through it because
(29:06):
you weren't it anyways.
Yeah, you couldn't get throughthe front door, or you couldn't
get past the person thatanswered the phone if you didn't
introduce yourself and ask tospeak to whoever it was you were
calling.
So I think it's time for us toto take back, you know, what has
been slowly eroded away from theway that we treat other people
(29:28):
and the way that we processemotions and and you know, we
just gotta protect our brain sothat we live long and prosper
for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (29:39):
Yep.
Unshakable brain set boundarieswith the devices, set boundaries
with the devices, no matter whatage you are.
Agreed.
All right, Miss Hallie Laracy,where can they find you?
SPEAKER_00 (29:57):
Halleleracy.com.
Is my website and you know Ilove the brain.
SPEAKER_01 (30:04):
For one-on-one health coaching.
SPEAKER_00 (30:07):
Yes.
Yes, one-to-one health coaching.
Love what I do, passionate aboutit, and love talking to people
one-to-one for sure.
Awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (30:18):
All right.
There you have it.
Unshakable brain.
If you can share this with afriend, I would greatly
appreciate it.
If you would take just a minuteand put a review on your
favorite podcast listeningplatform, that will help this
get into more ears so we canstop manipulating brains and
create unshakable ones.
(30:40):
Thank you.
About one in five US teens say social media hurts
their mental health.
Almost 50% say social media hasa mostly negative effect on
people their age, which is upfrom 2022.
In 2022, they said it was only32%, and now it's almost 20%
(00:27):
higher.
US parents are also moreworried.
In one survey, over half reportbeing very or extremely
concerned about teen mentalhealth.
And many of them see socialmedia as a major negative
influence.
So today I have a mama.
(00:49):
We're both mamas, actually.
We have I have a mama with uswho we're gonna dive into this
teenage mental health and socialmedia aspect.
Welcome to Unsake ShakableBrain, your guide to an
unshakable brain.
I'm your host, Dr.
Kylie, and my mission is simpleto help you grow a brain that's
(01:09):
stronger, sharper, andunshakable in every part of your
life.
Each week we explore thescience, stories, and strategies
that make to make that happen.
This episode is brought to youby Dr.
Rewire's brain DNA test.
Find out more atunshakablebrain.ai.
Let's dive in.
All right, Hallie.
Welcome aboard.
This is Miss, this is our coach,Hallie Legacy.
(01:31):
She is a health and wellnesscoach as well as a mom of two.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (01:38):
Thank you, Dr.
Kylie.
It's so great to be here withyou today to talk about
unshakable brains and how we canget them because they're pretty
shaken up at this point.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
They're very shaken up, which is one of the reasons
why I needed to start thispodcast, is because let's have
some real conversations, sharesome real stories and some
tricks, science, tips to help usbecome unshakable.
Our brains become unshakable ina manner of that's that's goes
(02:08):
deeper than dementia,Alzheimer's.
Like we don't, we're not worriedabout those.
We want to have our brains bethe best they can be at every
stage of life.
And I know how social media hasaffected me.
You've seen it with your kids.
(02:29):
As a mom, what do you what doyou find most worrisome about
social media?
SPEAKER_00 (02:37):
Well, I want to back up a little bit and go back to
when I was younger, when I wasmy kid's age.
Well, actually, even beforethat, really, you know, I grew
up in a time when Watergate wason the news.
And my grandparents watched it,and we were not allowed in the
(03:02):
room.
It wasn't for young minds toprocess.
It we were told to go outsideand play and do other things, do
puzzles and things like that.
But the Watergate room was offlimits.
And I remember my grandfatherbeing in there for hours
(03:22):
watching the proceedings.
And we never heard anythingabout it because it really we we
just our brains were not meantto process that sort of
information.
Like it was too mature.
You know, we were supposed tofocus on immature things like
going outside and playing in thedirt and and running around and
(03:45):
playing kickball and all ofthose kinds of things.
My how far we've come since theWatergate uh trials with 24-hour
news.
That's something else thatreally changed the dynamic for
children's brains, parents'brains, for every age brain that
(04:10):
there is.
The 24-hour news channel, youknow, people can pretty much say
whatever they want to on camera,and it stimulates our brains.
We have to process then processthat information and figure out
where it goes in our brain.
And so we have this constantpull and tug on our brain to
(04:34):
process stuff that it was nevermade to process, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01 (04:38):
At a very early age, too.
SPEAKER_00 (04:40):
At a very early age.
And you know, when parents arebombarded, you know, when you
have babies at home and you're astay-at-home mom and the 24-hour
news is going on, you know,you're taking all of that in,
and it affects you whetheryou're distracted or sad or you
(05:02):
know, excited.
I I remember, do you rememberthe bubble that that balloon
thing that they thought thechild was in?
Do you remember that?
Like I don't remember that.
Okay, it was like 10 years ago.
I'm sure you can find it onGoogle.
But there was a a balloon in theair that was flying around.
(05:24):
It was like a self-made balloon,and the parents were concerned
that their child was in there.
It overtook every news outletthat there was.
I, for one, was standing by theTV, petrified that there was a
child in this balloon.
Come to find out aftereverything was said and done
(05:46):
that there was no child in theballoon.
The parents did it for apublicity stunt.
And I remember that dayeverything changing for me about
how I was going to process allof this information that was
thrown at me nonstop.
But anyway, fast forward tosocial media.
(06:07):
Now you've got 24-hour newschannels and you've got all the
social media stuff.
You've got Instagram, you've gotTikTok, you've got Facebook,
you've got threads or thread,whatever it's called.
You know, you've got all ofthese things, stuff I don't even
know.
Yeah, X, that's right.
Yeah.
Which used to be Twitter, right?
And half of it I don't even knowhow to use.
(06:30):
But my kids do.
My kids know how to use it.
And I I remember back in the daywhen my kids were young too.
You know, I said no computers inthe bedroom.
That was like a narrator.
Yeah.
No computers in the bedroom.
And they're older now, ofcourse, but and they still
(06:52):
aren't allowed to have computersin their bedroom.
But this device is a computer.
SPEAKER_01 (06:59):
Yes, ma'am.
Yes, ma'am.
Those phones, these phones thatwe all have, that does
everything we need, a computerto do.
SPEAKER_00 (07:07):
Yeah.
And it also, it's it's got somany things in it to train us to
be more and more dependable onit.
So instead of the kids justsaying, you know, hey, can I get
TikTok on my my phone?
You know, and you're like, no,no, no.
And then like two weeks later,they're like, hey, I gotta have
my phone in my room because Ineed the alarm clock.
(07:30):
Or, you know, fill in the blank,whatever the reason is.
And I've stood my ground for areally long time.
Now my kids are 18, almost 19and 20.
And, you know, I hope that I'veraised them to make good
decisions on their own.
(07:51):
But if I were a mom today, myadvice would be to hold off on
giving your kid a phone or evenusing your phone.
I mean, I see toddlers in thegrocery store all the time with
their mom's phone or an iPad,and they're just going to town
(08:13):
looking at stuff.
And I say all that to say, Ibring it back to you, our brains
were not made to process thisoverload of stimulation and
information at a young age.
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Well, I am now 36, and I don't think my brain is
made to process all this.
And you have you and I have hadchats before where it's like
we're we're running businessesand we've been trained to
believe that in order to have aquote unsuccessful or successful
(08:54):
unquote business, we have to beon social media.
Yeah.
I don't believe in 2025 thatthat is true.
In fact, one of the biggestpodcasts I know, I've had an
interview with him on the on aprevious podcast, but he got
kicked off social media.
The man's doing just fine.
(09:17):
He just has his podcast and it'sgone big after what he shared
was going on in 2020 inAustralia with stage like the
hotel, not the hotels, thehospitals were being staged for
the media to come in and lieabout COVID.
(09:38):
So it begs to differ.
Like it doesn't matter how oldyou what your age is, how old or
young you are.
Are we destroying our minds, ourbrains through this constant
access of social media, constantaccess of YouTube, constant
access of every streaming deviceknown under mankind?
(10:01):
Like there are so many differentstreaming services out there.
Easton's always asking, he iseight now, and he's always
asking, you know, can I get thissubscription?
He doesn't know that they'resubscriptions, but he's like,
Mom, I want to do crunch crunchlabs.
I'm like, okay, well, that costsmoney every single month.
It might just be 1999, but it'sstill money every single month.
(10:23):
Netflix, Hulu, like I don't evenknow all of them that are out
there.
Peacock, because we only do oneof them.
And he knows that just becauseit's a little bit of money every
single month, that little bit ofmoney adds up.
And I would rather him put moneyelsewhere in other places.
So we've had that community,that conversation of making a
(10:45):
boundary and saying, okay, weneed to limit access.
They have gab phones and gabwatches for kids.
You know, what if we started atrend that was gab watch for
adults too?
Yeah.
Gab phones for adults too.
And I've been wrapping my mindaround this thought of okay, if
(11:09):
I don't want my kids on socialmedia, why am I on social media?
So I can look back over thispast summer and I can see how I
did not have cell phone service.
We had Starlink up at camp whenwe camp at 10,000 feet in the
mountains here in Utah, wherethere's no service, and it's
(11:32):
glorious.
We had Starlink up there.
I intentionally did not connectto it.
I didn't want that accessibilityon my phone.
And I saw how much more presentI was with not just my kids, but
it wasn't like my mind was somuch more protected.
(11:52):
My brain wasn't receivinginformation that I had to
process 24-7.
And especially as we we've beentrained to scroll, yeah, and
we've been trained to flip andreceive that stimulation
constantly.
So my my thought is is if I didit all summer long when we went
camping on as many times as wewent camping, why am I still
(12:17):
doing it when I have service?
What would be the consequencesof me just eliminating all
social media from my phone?
Yeah.
I think I'm gonna pull thetrigger on it.
Yeah.
Because it's not worth if we'rehere talking about an unshakable
brain, yeah, that is one thingthat is destroying the most
(12:41):
important thing, I think,destroying brains, whether
you're 36 or 6 or 86.
SPEAKER_00 (12:51):
Yeah.
You know, you you bring up areally good point too when you
said about protecting your brainwhen you were at 10,000 feet.
There were the and I'm surethey're ongoing, the lawsuits
that are ongoing, but a fewyears ago I watched a segment on
one of the news programs thatsome parents were suing Meta
(13:13):
because their daughter justhappened on Instagram to like
search some type of food orsomething like that that was
linked to weight loss.
And one rabbit hole led toanother, to another, to another,
and then all of a sudden, 90% ofher feed was about food and not
(13:38):
eating, and it led to anorexia.
And the parents blame Meta andrightly so.
I mean, now that was a few yearsago, but now, and you can call
me a conspiracy theorist if youwant, but our phones are always
(13:59):
listening to us, our computersare always listening to us.
I mean, I've said like onecomment.
Oh, my daughter, oh, she got herwisdom teeth pulled in June, and
she was very, you know, nervousabout it and everything.
And she was trying to figure outways so she didn't have to take
the pain meds.
She does not like any medicationever.
(14:21):
And she found out somethingabout pineapple juice that it
could help with those, you know,the with the inflammation and
the pain.
And so she was kind of likesearching that and she said,
Mom, my whole feed everywhere isabout getting your wisdom teeth
pulled.
And some of the videos werequite graphic.
(14:42):
And of course, she had to shieldher eyes and decide not to watch
that.
But your point in being at10,000 feet and dec 10,000 feet
and deciding to be present andengaged in the moment with your
family.
There there's no room for all ofthat distraction and assault of
(15:06):
negative, bloody images thathave nothing to do with what
you're interested in.
Not now, not ever.
And you cannot unsee something.
All you have to do is go, youknow, on social media and you
can see lots of blood and goreand all of the things.
And those are the things thatreally concern me too about
(15:30):
protecting this unshakable brainfor our kids because that trauma
is not so easily erased.
Having them feel unsafe at homeor in public is not good for
their brain because they'reconstantly on edge.
(15:50):
They're they're scared, they'renervous, they're anxious,
they're having panic attacks.
So and that doesn't only affecttheir brain, that affects their
bodies.
Some of them, like the girl withthe anorexia, you know, some of
them can't eat because they'rethey're so afraid of what's out
(16:10):
there in the real world.
But what their their minds andtheir brains and their wisdom
and their experience doesn't letthem know is that that was just
a small example of somethingthat happened.
This isn't the norm that's outthere.
But social media presents it ina way like, oh, this is the
(16:31):
norm.
You better be careful.
And I'm not saying you shouldn'tbe careful.
Yes, you should be careful, butbut you know what I'm saying?
It's like it's this constantneed to process this unhealthy
information.
SPEAKER_01 (16:46):
You're giving a good example.
I can think of another one.
Um, when I started my businessin 2018, and as I put on my
profile, like owner of or CEOof, that starts feeding you all
of these business things.
Uh, I look back now and Iprobably would have been
(17:07):
classified as depressed.
The end of every single year,when I look back at what I did
in my business, it wasn't goodenough compared to what I was
seeing on social media.
I don't give a crap about cars.
Cars don't rejuvenate me, theydon't motivate me, they don't
like I will drive a Toyota forthe rest of my life.
(17:27):
I don't care.
As long as it gets me from pointA to point B and I can trust it.
That's what matters.
But I'm seeing all these, these,you know, influencers, quote, in
quotes, or people that I thoughtI should look up to in business
with flashy cars and yachts andand the things that the world
(17:49):
deems as successful.
I saw on uh a post yesterday bySimon Squibb when he's going
around and interviewing peopleabout what is their dream.
And what the one interviewer, heprobably had to be in his
mid-20s, if I was guessing.
(18:10):
He asked, Simon asked him whatsuccess meant.
Because he said, I want to be asuccess.
And so Simon asked, Well, whatdoes success mean to you?
And he said, Being surrounded bylove.
Yeah.
And he said, putting a monetaryvalue on success is wrong.
unknown (18:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:40):
Success is being surrounded by people you love
and that they love you for you.
And I thought, man, that kid'swon the lottery.
He understands that in mid-20s.
I wish I understood that.
I wish I was surrounded by morepeople who understood that.
Not being fed other things onsocials about how it's never
(19:03):
your business is never goodenough.
You should always be wanting toscale it and grow it.
And that's where I'm coming atwhen I'm making the decision.
Like, is it even worth being onit anymore?
Is it destroying my brain thatmuch?
And I believe it is.
And I'm 36.
And I've got an eight-year-oldand a five-year-old and a
(19:25):
two-year-old.
And I'm like, I don't want tosee them ever, like ever on it.
I hope in a decade it's verydifferent, or in five years,
like I'll give them a gab watch,and that's gonna be the thing.
And if they want to know why momhas one of these phones, well,
I'll switch to a gab phone too.
Like, because seeing when Ijoined Facebook in 2008 and
(19:48):
where it's gone to now, it's notworth it.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And and maybe destroying is adifferent word, not the right
word.
I would rather say manipulating.
SPEAKER_00 (20:09):
That's a good word.
Yeah, that's a good word.
Because it's true.
I mean, that's why I'm soexcited about your passion for
backing things up.
Let's let's own our brainhealth.
Let's let's decide that we'regonna be an overperformer based
(20:30):
on our drive and what we want toaccomplish in life, not compared
to what everyone else is doing.
You know, when you said that thesuccess is love, that is so
true.
You look at all of theseinfluencers who one day they're
smiling on the camera, and thenext day you hear they committed
suicide.
(20:51):
It's just it's heartbreaking.
And then we could have a wholenother conversation about the
connection between the heart andbrain.
Let's do it.
We got time.
I mean, the brain affectseverything, right?
The the gut, the heart, iteverything is so beautifully
interconnected in our lives.
(21:12):
But we've talked about beforemost of the modalities out there
uh treat uh the neck below, youknow, and not the neck above,
which is the head, the brain,and all the things that is
included in the brain, you know,the the thyroid.
I mean, it's it's all talking uhbeautifully to itself, or it
(21:36):
should be.
And we just we got to find thatthat way to take our brains back
and and own own our futures andnot just give up to this some
sometimes I consider it kind oflike a robotic atmosphere.
You know, there's lots ofdocumentaries out there about
social media and what's going onbehind the scenes that they have
(21:59):
ways to keep the kids connected.
You know, they could be asleepin the middle of the night and
they wake up and they thinkabout something that they missed
or whatever, and they get backon.
But that's the whole goal,that's the whole plan.
So if their brains areconstantly stimulated in that
area, it cannot be healthy inthose other areas like school,
(22:21):
learning, life lessons, all ofthose things, because what's
teaching them all of that isthis fake world of social media
and comparing themselves toeveryone else.
It's not healthy.
SPEAKER_01 (22:37):
That's destructive, manipulative.
SPEAKER_00 (22:39):
Manipulative, I like to put it in that.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:43):
Okay.
As we uh finish up here, there'sa mom seeing your teenagers as
the with the introduction ofsocial media to now.
Could you think of a story ortwo that you'd like to share
with the audience?
SPEAKER_00 (23:04):
Well, well, I don't know if this is the kind of
story that you're looking for,but I will say that I was that
mom that my kids did not likevery much when all of their
friends had phones, Facebook,Instagram, X, which was then
(23:26):
Twitter, you know, all thethings, especially when you
know, we we were in homeschoolgroups because we homeschooled
for a time.
Then when they were in schooland they were doing sports, they
had all of these group me's andall of these other apps that of
(23:46):
course if you don't have aphone, you can't have the app.
But I stood my ground and Isaid, you know what?
I have a phone.
I will be the intermediary, Iwill be the go-between.
And I'm so glad that I did thatbecause yes, it was hard, and
(24:09):
they they were mad, they werefrustrated and all of that.
But I will never know theimpact, the long-term impact
that I saved them from.
You know, and I had to wear mythick skin, and my husband
supported me, and and he waslike, you know, yeah, I agree
(24:29):
with you and all of that, butyou know, the the conversations
come very early about mom, I'mthe only one without a phone.
I, you know, forever's a longtime to be wrong.
If you give them that phone tooearly, it's impossible to take
it away.
It's a whole lot easier towithhold it and give it to them
(24:53):
much later when you feel likethey can handle it.
I think the environment hascreated this place where it's
like, like you said, you know,the parents are on social media,
the parents are doing all theseother things, and it's a way to
keep the kids entertained.
And that's what the phone andand all of the social stuff and
all of the apps and everythinghas become is entertainment.
(25:16):
One of the reasons why I lovewhat you're doing, taking back
our brain space and theunshakable brain is you know,
let's find healthier ways toentertain than social media.
Let's get back outside, let'splay games, let's play in the
dirt, let's go camping at 10,000feet, get on Starlink and check
out and be present.
(25:36):
We're not present anymore.
And it's the generations belowus that are gonna, you know,
really feel the effect of that,in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01 (25:46):
I watch as supposedly, of course, this is
on socials, but millions ofpeople, it says, have
unsubscribed from Disney Plus.
Yeah.
Because they brought in JimmyFallon.
Is that who it was?
SPEAKER_00 (26:04):
Well, they canceled Jimmy Kimmel, right?
SPEAKER_01 (26:06):
Jimmy Kimmel, yeah.
It was it's not Jimmy Fallon,yeah.
Jimmy Kimmel.
Yes, they cancel him, and thenDisney Disney brought him in,
and now people are you knowdropping Disney like flies.
At least that's what the postsaid.
That's what they say.
So I think like you just have tomake a stance because I I don't
(26:30):
I don't want my kids on social,like I want them to avoid that
like like crazy.
And even Easton, who's who's inthird grade, all of his
classmates and his friends, theyall walk with their gab watches
and their gab phones, and andthat's fine because it doesn't
have socials on it, but he'sstill asking for a phone.
(26:50):
And I think one of the best waysto say you don't need social is
well, mom, why are you on itthen?
So if we're not even on itourselves, yeah, we're
protecting our brains and we'reprotecting the next generation.
I agree.
So good on you for delayingthat.
Thank you.
(27:12):
I do have a neighbor who sharedwith me what their rule is with
phones, and I think we can sharethat here.
Is they have one Gab phone forall the kids.
And when they go, like say theygo to a soccer game or they go
somewhere where the one personneeds the phone, it's like the
household phone that is nowmobile rather than the household
(27:33):
phone being connected to thewall.
It's something that they havethe one phone that they can
share when it's necessary.
I love that.
SPEAKER_00 (27:41):
That is great because you know, another side
of this too, Dr.
Kylie, is that children don'tknow how to interact with adults
anymore.
And part of that has fallen awaybecause you've got all of these
kids that have their own phones,and so they're talking and
texting to each other.
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
Don't even know how to interact with each other.
They that's true.
Like, how many times have yougone to a restaurant on a date
with your husband and you seesomebody else on a date with
their spouse, and they're bothsitting on phones, and you
think, Wow, that's a greatmarriage.
They don't even know how tocommunicate, they're literally
sitting there by them bythemselves, like with just each
(28:18):
other looking in their screen.
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (28:21):
Yeah, yeah, but I mean is addiction.
It is addiction, and how nicewould it be for someone to call
your house and say, Hi, Dr.
Kylie, this is Stephen.
Is Easton there?
May I speak with him, please?
Kids don't know how that, youknow, they would rather wait
outside.
Okay, when they come over here,they would rather wait outside
(28:44):
and wait for whatever childthey're here to see to come out
there and get them and escortthem in the house.
Because I mean, it's notnecessarily that I'm scary
because I'm not scary, but youknow, it's just like that.
Oh, it's gonna be awkward with aparent.
And it it was never awkward forus, or actually, if it was
awkward when I was growing up,you pushed through it because
(29:06):
you weren't it anyways.
Yeah, you couldn't get throughthe front door, or you couldn't
get past the person thatanswered the phone if you didn't
introduce yourself and ask tospeak to whoever it was you were
calling.
So I think it's time for us toto take back, you know, what has
been slowly eroded away from theway that we treat other people
(29:28):
and the way that we processemotions and and you know, we
just gotta protect our brain sothat we live long and prosper
for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (29:39):
Yep.
Unshakable brain set boundarieswith the devices, set boundaries
with the devices, no matter whatage you are.
Agreed.
All right, Miss Hallie Laracy,where can they find you?
SPEAKER_00 (29:57):
Halleleracy.com.
Is my website and you know Ilove the brain.
SPEAKER_01 (30:04):
For one-on-one health coaching.
SPEAKER_00 (30:07):
Yes.
Yes, one-to-one health coaching.
Love what I do, passionate aboutit, and love talking to people
one-to-one for sure.
Awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (30:18):
All right.
There you have it.
Unshakable brain.
If you can share this with afriend, I would greatly
appreciate it.
If you would take just a minuteand put a review on your
favorite podcast listeningplatform, that will help this
get into more ears so we canstop manipulating brains and
create unshakable ones.
(30:40):
Thank you.
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