What if anxiety isn’t the enemy – we’ve just been using it wrong?

Sometimes the tools we build for others are the ones we needed to invent for ourselves.

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I’ve always struggled with anxiety. My brain can turn an unresolved text message into a full-blown crisis. But what I never realized is that if our minds can rehearse disaster, we can also train them to rehearse something different.

That insight is at the heart of my conversation with James Veraldi. James didn’t just help build TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat—he helped design the algorithms that made them addictive.

Then something big happened at TikTok. And he couldn’t look away.

James walked away from one of the most powerful jobs in tech to try something radical: building tools that improve mental health instead of exploiting it.

And along the way, he discovered something shocking:

Anxiety isn’t the enemy. We’ve just been using it wrong. And we can use the power of visualization to address it.

In this episode, we get into:

✅ The 3-step framework for reclaiming focus when you’re stuck in the comparison trap

✅ The TikTok incident that made James rethink his entire career

✅ The risks people face today when using chatGPT for therapy

✅ How to use the power of visualization – and why it works better than willpower for achieving success and managing anxiety

And in this week’s How-To, I break down:

→ A new definition of failure: It’s not about falling short

→ Why visualizing neutral outcomes can stop anxiety from hijacking your brain—and how to use it in high-stakes moments

→ Why postmortems matter just as much as planning—and how to do them well

→ The mental reframe that keeps you from spiraling when your competition gets loud

Because here’s the truth:

Anxiety built civilization. It’s what kept our ancestors alive. The problem isn’t anxiety—it’s that we’ve let social media companies turn it against us.

There’s more ahead. There always is.

—Molly

🧠 Get the takeaways straight to your inbox. My newsletter ‘What I Wish I Knew’ shares all the research + tools I use in my own life: mollykawahata.com/join

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🔗 View the full show notes at mollykawahata.com/podcast

🎥 Video episodes available on YouTube

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🔗 Follow for more:
YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | LinkedIn

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Connect with James:

LinkedIn

Kairo: Harnessing the power of visualization to up your athletic performance - You can try the web-beta today

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🕒 Timestamps

00:22 – Sun protection, witness-protection vibes, and thirties energy

03:17 – Enter James Veraldi: Guest introduction and background

06:26 – Building technology for positive mental health outcomes

12:01 – Early career and finding entrepreneurship

14:09 – Lessons from getting fired and moving into startups

16:11 – The genesis of Loop

21:20 – The birth of Scenario: visualization for social anxiety

25:20 – How visualization works

36:13 – Diving and entrepreneurship: Lessons from the deep ocean

44:05 – Managing failure, setbacks, and maintaining hope

49:03 – The How-To: Action

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I’ve spent the last two months talking with innovators who’ve done wild things—from surviving homelessness to becoming a world-renowned hope researcher, to convincing a sitting President to get roasted on a comedy show to save a landmark policy.

This week, I’ve pulled the most powerful strategies from our recent episodes into one mixtape. The common thread? The most effective ways to create change often defy logic.

This episode is a toolkit for moments when the usual path doesn’t work, covering:

✅ The Science of Hope: Why setting “moonshot” goals improves performance & how to train your brain for bigger risks.

✅ Behavioral Science: How to motivate anyone using identity & social proof, not logic.

✅ The Power of Awe: Using “lowercase awe” to reduce daily stress and rewire your brain.

✅ Strategic Humor: A look inside the White House’s plan to use comedy to achieve a high-stakes goal.

Plus: one quick how-to from Nathaniel’s episode—a two-part behavioral science playbook to move anyone, including yourself.

Putting these together, I realized it’s a sort of toolkit for moments when the usual path doesn’t work. Because when logic fails, human nature often leaves a side window cracked open.

Here's to breaking through,

— Molly

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🧠 Get the takeaways straight to your inbox. My newsletter ‘What I Wish I Knew’ shares all the research + tools I use in my own life: mollykawahata.com/join

—

🔗 View the full show notes at mollykawahata.com/podcast

🎥 Video episodes available on YouTube

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🎙️ Catch the full episodes for the full story—and the actionable how-tos you can use today:

• THE HOPE SCIENTIST Pt 1—Surviving Homelessness to Becoming the World’s Leading Hope Researcher: Dr. Chan Hellman on the Flaw in Optimism, Destroying Toxic Positivity, & the 3-Part Formula to Predict Success
• THE SILENT CLIMATE MAJORITY—How Behavioral Science Is Activating Millions, The NBA Pattern No One Can Explain, How to Hack Human Nature for Good
• DR. KIM NOLAN—“The Moment I Chose to Stay” (A Buddhist Chaplain’s Journey Through the Veil), the Biological Power of Awe, How to Hack “Timelessness”
• BRAD JENKINS—The Man Who Convinced Obama Into Getting Roasted: Inside the Viral Stunt That Saved Healthcare in America, Why Comedy is the Ultimate Weapon

🎧 Listen to the full Between Stories:

• 🧗‍♀️ THE RESCUE OPERATION I DIDN'T KNOW WAS MINE—A story about cosmic humiliation, climbing, tinder ghosts, and the surprising way humor saves us
• 🌌 WHEN I COULDN'T FIND THE BLACK BETWEEN STARS—A story about Yosemite, awe, and what happens when you hand someone a feeling they might not catch
• 🕓 THE 3AM WHITE HOUSE EPIPHANY—A story about climate, burnout, and the uncomfortable truth that fear might not be what moves us after all
• 🧠 LAUGHING ON THE WAY TO THE ER—A story about denial, Bipolar highs, and the cost of feeling invincible

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🕒 Timestamps

01:03 - Introduction to the science of hope

1:53 - Dr. Chan Hellman: the Science of Hope

13:19 - Nathaniel Stinnett: the silent climate majority

31:33 - Dr. Kim Nolan: the power of awe

41:24 - Brad Jenkins: The White House’s move to use humor to save policy

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In this episode, I answer the question: What’s the most dramatic way to ruin your own life for 24 hours?

This is the story about becoming the world's most expensive inconvenience.

Welcome to The Between Series—a series where I take you into moments from my life that shaped the themes we explore in the main episodes.

For anyone who’s ever:

• Hit "reply all" on something you shouldn’t have.
• Been that person in a group text.
• Woken up in cold sweat remembering something dumb you did in 2012

In this episode, I tell the story of my top-five most mortifying life moments. It starts with a new smartwatch, a few misplaced button clicks in my backpack during an ice climb, and an SOS signal I didn't know I had sent. It ends with a full-scale search and rescue operation—while I was, completely obliviously, having the time of my life.

For a long time, I carried this story as proof that I was a burden—irresponsible, dramatic, the world’s most expensive inconvenience. But when I finally dared to tell it out loud, the shame I expected was met with something else entirely: laughter. The kind of laughter that cracks a story open and turns it into absurdity, connection, and relief.

This is the companion to our last episode with Brad Jenkins about using humor as a strategy—not just for persuasion, but for survival—and how the Obama White House used it to save the Affordable Care Act.

It’s a look at how humor isn’t just for coping—it’s one of the most powerful tools we have for connection, forgiveness, and even large-scale change.

Sometimes the only way out of our own shame is to find the punchline.

There’s more ahead. There always is.

— Molly

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🧠 Get the takeaways straight to your inbox. My newsletter ‘What I Wish I Knew’ shares all the research + tools I use in my own life: mollykawahata.com/join

—

🔗 View the full show notes at mollykawahata.com/podcast

🎥 Video episodes available on YouTube

—

🔗 Follow for more:
YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | LinkedIn

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