The Crisis of Character | Why Being a Good Person Has Never Felt Harder

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You try to be a good person. And then you look up at the men who have all the power, all the money, all the platforms — who lie and cheat and manipulate without consequence — and you think: why am I even trying? We are living in a crisis of character. Dr. Therese breaks down how we got here, why character is so important, and what we can do to begin making things right in a broken world. In This Episode * Why the rage you feel watching dishonest people keep winning isn’t a personality flaw — it’s a sign that something is genuinely, systemically broken • The dark side of organized religion and what it has to do with why character stopped being rewarded • Why the wellness world — cold plunges, breathwork, sound baths and all — might be making the character crisis worse, not better • What the therapist code of ethics reveals about the gap between what we preach and what we actually do (and why the most obvious rule is the one that keeps getting broken) • Why Stoic philosophy, developed over 2,000 years ago, might be more urgently needed now than ever — and the one practice that can change how you move through the world • The qualities we have nearly lost as a culture — and what reclaiming even one could do for your relationships, your work, and your sense of self • Why good character almost always costs something — and why the people with the most of it are rarely the ones with the biggest platforms • What it actually means to live with integrity when no one is watching and it costs you something real — and how to start today Key Quotes “The reason those videos get millions of views is because we are starving. And what we are starving for is character.” “Character is almost never produced without hardship. And hardship we have made increasingly optional.” “You are not going to go viral for being patient with your mother on the phone. The algorithms were not designed to reward this.” “The people who stayed late and cleaned toilets were in the back. The people who looked good doing it were invited to the stage.” “We say we hate narcissism. But our attention says we love it.” “Wellness without character is just a more expensive form of self-absorption.” “We assume that because someone can articulate pain well, they must also know how to handle it with care.” “In a culture that runs on the fear of not-enough, generosity is a radical act.” “In a world designed to split your attention into a thousand pieces, presence is the most powerful form of love.” “The Stoics called it prosoche — the daily practice of asking yourself: am I actually living what I believe? Most of us never ask. We’re too busy watching everyone else.” If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with someone who’s been running on empty and doesn’t have words for what they need. 📝 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It takes two minutes and makes a real difference in helping this show reach more people who need it. 🔔 And if you haven’t subscribed yet, do that now so you don’t miss the rest of Season 2. Resources Mentioned * If you’d like to learn more about Stoicism: The Little Book of Stoicism [https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Stoicism-Resilience-Confidence/dp/3952506907] by Jonas Salzgeber. * Related episodes: How to Cope When the World Is on Fire | Grief, Anger & Doom Scrolling ft. Dr. Marie Fang [https://exploringtherapy.substack.com/p/how-to-cope-when-the-world-is-on] — what it actually looks like to hold yourself together when everything feels like too much. Why You’re Still Exhausted Even After Rest [https://exploringtherapy.substack.com/p/why-youre-still-exhausted-even-after?r=1po6k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true] — a foundational episode on the seven types of rest and what you actually need to recover. About Dr. Therese Dr. Therese Mascardo is a Filipina-American psychologist and author of Love The Journey. For over a decade, she’s been in therapy rooms noticing patterns most people never get to see: what happens right before someone breaks through to genuine joy, what keeps people stuck, what actually helps when everything feels heavy. Her mission is to help people love their lives so they never want to leave them. 💙 Sponsored by TherapyNotes This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes — the all-in-one practice management software built for therapists who are tired of spending Sunday nights catching up on notes. Scheduling, billing, telehealth, and HIPAA-compliant documentation all in one place. Their TherapyFuel AI drafts progress notes in seconds so you can close your laptop and actually be present in the rest of your life. Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com [https://exploringtherapy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Psychology of Money: Breaking Free From Financial Shame & Anxiety w/ Lindsay Bryan-Podvin

You’re not bad with money. But you do avoid opening your bank account. You let the bills pile up. You change the subject when finances come up because not knowing feels safer than looking. And underneath all of that is a shame spiral that’s been running so long it just feels like who you are. The real issue isn’t your habits. It’s that your money story was formed before you were old enough to question it, the system is more broken than anyone will admit, and nobody has ever addressed the emotional layer underneath — just the numbers. This week I sat down with Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, a licensed clinical social worker, certified financial therapist, and founder of Mind Money Balance. She won’t make you feel worse about where you are. She covers why high-achieving women get stuck in financial shame, what your childhood money story is still doing to you right now, and why curiosity — not discipline — is what finally moves the needle. She also gets into joyful spending, the “fun money account,” financial self-care by subtraction, ADHD and money, and how to talk about finances with a partner without it blowing up. You’re going to walk away feeling less alone, less ashamed, and clear on what you actually have the power to change. Listen now: YouTube: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: In This Episode Why smart, high-achieving people still struggle with money It’s not a personal failure. It’s the combination of a genuinely broken system, deeply ingrained money beliefs formed before age 8, and a shame spiral that keeps you from ever looking closely enough to actually change anything. The shame vs. guilt distinction that changes everything Guilt says: I made a bad money decision. Shame says: I am bad with money. Lindsay explains why shame makes it almost impossible to take action — and why curiosity is the way out. You cannot budget your way out of a broken system Lindsay breaks down the structural realities that make financial stress inevitable for so many of us — outdated financial advice, housing costs that have nearly doubled when adjusted for inflation, healthcare tied to employment, and the “enshittification” of the tech platforms that were supposed to save us money. This is context most people never get, and it matters. How your childhood money story still runs the show Money beliefs are largely formed by age 7 or 8. Lindsay walks through how to get curious about your own money story — not to spiral, but to finally understand why you do what you do. Joyful spending — and why perfectionists resist it For a lot of us, spending on ourselves feels indulgent, irresponsible, even scary. Lindsay talks about the “fun money account,” the under-$20 practice purchase, and why learning to spend joyfully is actually an act of self-care. Financial self-care by subtraction Sometimes the most generous thing you can do is take things off your plate, not add more. Lindsay talks about automating bills, canceling aspirational subscriptions, and doing a social media audit of the financial content you’re consuming. ADHD and money: working with your brain, not against it From the “ADHD tax” to body doubling with Focusmate to giving yourself permission to own three water bottles — Lindsay has genuinely practical, brain-first strategies for managing finances when your brain doesn’t do “conventional.” Money and couples Lindsay shares her “theirs, mine, and ours” system, why couples who talk about money regularly are measurably happier, and what to ask when deciding between a couples therapist and a financial therapist. What she wants every perfectionist to take away about mistakes Mistakes with money are not a sign you’re failing. They’re part of the process. Lindsay’s parting message for perfectionists is one of the most freeing things in this episode. Key Quotes “You cannot budget your way out of a broken system.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “Guilt says, I made a bad money decision. Shame says, I am bad with money.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “Secrecy, silence, and judgment make shame worse and harder to overcome.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “We are trying to shoehorn ourselves into an economic picture that no longer exists.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “Throw out about 80% of the personal finance advice out there. It was written for a world that is long gone.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “There’s a lot of fear in joy — because it feels like if I have joy, I’ll lose my edge.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “A mistake doesn’t mean you’re bad. It is just an opportunity to learn more about yourself.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “Your money story started before you were old enough to question it.” — Dr. Therese If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with a friend who you know is white-knuckling their finances in silence 📝 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It takes two minutes and makes a real difference in helping this show reach more people who need it. 🔔 And if you haven’t subscribed yet, do that now so you don’t miss the rest of Season 2. About Checking In This podcast is for high-achievers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who look like they have it all together but are silently struggling. Think of Dr. Therese like a big sister with a doctorate who’s been there too and knows what actually helps. No confusing academic jargon or pretending she has all the answers. Just real conversations about building a life you don’t need to escape from. New episodes every Thursday. Season 2: Unimaginable Joy — exploring everything that impacts mental health beyond the mind. About Lindsay Bryan-Podvin Lindsay Bryan-Podvin is a licensed clinical social worker, certified financial therapist, and founder of Mind Money Balance. She ran a financial wellbeing curriculum for the University of Michigan for three years and has been featured in Allure, HuffPost, CNET, Time, and PBS. She’s the author of The Financial Anxiety Solution, a workbook that walks you through the emotional, psychological, and behavioral roots of your money stress — not just the numbers. 📖 The Financial Anxiety Solution [https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Anxiety-Solution-Step-Step/dp/1646040074] 📲 Follow Lindsay [https://www.instagram.com/mindmoneybalance/] 🌐 View the website [https://www.mindmoneybalance.com/about] About Dr. Therese Dr. Therese Mascardo is a Filipina-American psychologist and author of Love The Journey. For over a decade, she’s been in therapy rooms noticing patterns most people never get to see: what happens right before someone breaks through to genuine joy, what keeps people stuck, what actually helps when everything feels heavy. Her mission is to help people love their lives so they never want to leave them. Resources Mentioned * The Financial Anxiety Solution [https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Anxiety-Solution-Step-Step/dp/1646040074] by Lindsay Bryan-Podvin [https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Anxiety-Solution-Step-Step/dp/1646040074] * Focusmate (body doubling app) [https://www.focusmate.com/] * The Financial Therapy Association [https://financialtherapyassociation.org/find-a-financial-therapist/] If this episode resonated, these ones pick up right where it left off * The Surprising Connection Between Success, Shame & ADHD w/ Dr. Shawn Horn [https://exploringtherapy.substack.com/p/the-surprising-connection-between] * Are You Building the Wrong Life? w/ Jodie Cook [https://exploringtherapy.substack.com/p/are-you-building-the-wrong-life] 💙 Sponsored by TherapyNotes This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes — the all-in-one practice management software built for therapists who are tired of spending Sunday nights catching up on notes. Scheduling, billing, telehealth, and HIPAA-compliant documentation all in one place. Their TherapyFuel AI drafts progress notes in seconds so you can close your laptop and actually be present in the rest of your life. Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com [https://exploringtherapy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

14 de may de 20261 h 15 min

The Burnout Cure High Achievers Are Finding in the Analog World w/ Salomé Peralta

The Burnout Cure High Achievers Are Finding in the Analog World w/ Salomé Peralta You’ve probably tried the rest. The better sleep schedule. The morning routine. Maybe even the therapy. And they’ve helped. But there’s something this particular kind of burnout is asking for that none of those things quite reach — and it has everything to do with what you stopped doing somewhere between childhood and being a serious adult. This week I sat down with Salomé Peralta, who spent over 12 years at Google in Dublin and watched burnout quietly take hold — not because anyone was forcing her into it, but because the environment was so exciting and the work so consuming that it just became everything. When life gave her forced pauses, she kept noticing the same thing: the moment she slowed down and used her hands, something came back. Some version of herself she hadn’t seen in a long time. That realization is what became The Manual Break — and the first edition sold out. This conversation is one of my favorites I’ve had on this show. In This Episode How Salomé got here A Portuguese government program randomly placed her in Dublin for six months. A friend at Google had her over for lunch. She stayed for 12 years. That’s the kind of serendipity that changes everything — including who you become and what you eventually decide to build. What burnout actually looked like inside a company doing everything “right” Google had wellbeing conversations in one-on-ones. It cared. And yet the culture was so performance-driven, so genuinely exciting, that it was easy to lose yourself in it — not because anyone told you to, but because you wanted to. Salomé talks honestly about how it felt to realize she’d drifted away from herself without noticing. The forced pauses that changed everything Every time Salomé stepped away from work — for maternity leave, or when her husband Tiago was laid off — she noticed the same thing: she could breathe again. She could remember what she actually liked. She could see what she’d been missing. She didn’t want to wait for another forced pause to find her way back. What The Manual Break actually is Not a yoga class. Not a silent meditation weekend. Their words: “Not a retreat, but it may feel like one.” It’s a creative weekend — two days in the forest, away from screens — where burned-out professionals work alongside Portuguese artists and craftspeople learning hands-on skills. No performance expected. No end result required. Just your hands doing something real. The first edition, held at Retiro do Bosque about an hour from Lisbon, sold out. Why working with your hands does something screens never can Salomé’s take: it connects you to the child you once were. Before achievement became your identity. Before creativity had to justify itself. There’s something about making something tangible — especially in industries where the end line never really comes — that creates a kind of rest that rest alone can’t touch. On nostalgia as a signal We’re all feeling it — the pull toward analog cameras, board games, reading in the park. Salomé’s read on it: nostalgia shows up when we’re losing too much going the other direction. It’s not just sentiment. It’s your nervous system telling you something. “I’m not creative” Salomé has a reframe for this. Stop calling it creativity. Call it exploration. You’re not there to make great art. You’re there to try something, with your hands, without anyone grading you. That’s it. And for people whose entire professional life is tied to performance, that permission alone can be the breakthrough. What Salomé hopes people walk away with Not just a nice weekend. A felt sense that manual mode is available to them — that it’s not out of reach, that it doesn’t require a special experience to access. The bingo card she sent guests home with said it best: cook something slowly, read before bed, write something by hand, sketch for a few minutes. These things are not gone. They’re just waiting. What’s next for The Manual Break A collaboration with Portuguese grandmas who make art through a social hub for 60+ women. And Salomé and Dr. Therese are exploring bringing The Manual Break to the Checking In community this fall in Portugal. Details to come. Key Quotes “You just easily lose yourself. It’s so easy to forget about taking care of other things because it easily becomes all you want to achieve.” — Salomé Peralta “Every time I was forced to stop, I realized there are so many other things I’m not currently integrating in my life that I really like.” — Salomé Peralta “It connects you to the child you once were more easily.” — Salomé Peralta “If you feel that nostalgia, it’s probably because we’re losing too much while going through the other end of things.” — Salomé Peralta “It’s not about being creative. It’s about being more explorative.” — Salomé Peralta “It’s really easy to completely forget about play and playful things in your life.” — Salomé Peralta “I remembered a part of myself I forgot.” — Dr. Therese Mascardo “It would be successful for me if people would leave feeling that it’s easier to go back to manual mode in their normal lives.” — Salomé Peralta If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with someone who’s been running on empty and doesn’t have words for what they need. 📝 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It takes two minutes and makes a real difference in helping this show reach more people who need it. 🔔 And if you haven’t subscribed yet, do that now so you don’t miss the rest of Season 2. About Checking In: This podcast is for high-achievers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who look like they have it all together while they struggle with burnout. Think of Dr. Therese like a big sister with a doctorate who’s been there too and knows what actually helps. No confusing academic jargon or pretending she has all the answers. Just real conversations about building a life you don’t need to escape from. New episodes every Thursday. About Salomé Peralta Salomé Peralta spent over 12 years at Google in Dublin before co-founding The Manual Break with her husband Tiago — a hands-on creative experience that brings burned-out professionals back to themselves through art and Portuguese craft. Follow The Manual Break on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/themanualbreak/] Connect with Salomé on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/salomeperalta/] Resources Mentioned • The Manual Break on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/themanualbreak/] • The first edition sold out — join the waiting list for the next edition [https://www.themanualbreak.com/#text-129fd9b2] • Interested in joining Dr. Therese for a future Manual Break in Portugal? Click here. [https://forms.gle/Se2uyE3tV3vS6Ra88] About Dr. Therese Dr. Therese Mascardo is a Filipina-American psychologist and author of Love The Journey. For over a decade, she’s been in therapy rooms noticing patterns most people never get to see: what happens right before someone breaks through to genuine joy, what keeps people stuck, what actually helps when everything feels heavy. Her mission is to help people love their lives so they never want to leave them. 💙 Sponsored by TherapyNotes This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes — the all-in-one practice management software built for therapists who are tired of spending Sunday nights catching up on notes. Scheduling, billing, telehealth, and HIPAA-compliant documentation all in one place. Their TherapyFuel AI drafts progress notes in seconds so you can close your laptop and actually be present in the rest of your life. Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com [https://exploringtherapy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

16 de abr de 20261 h 7 min

The Crisis of Character | Why Being a Good Person Has Never Felt Harder

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