Staying Sane
Episode
27 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Productivity, Relationships, Investing
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Dual-source media consumption: Reading two ideologically opposed outlets daily — one left-leaning, one right-leaning — reveals what each omits from the same story. Theresa reads the New York Times alongside the Wall Street Journal specifically to catch narrative gaps, reducing reactive thinking and building a more complete picture before forming opinions.
- ✓Counter-polarization through nuance outlets: The independent US publication Tangle covers one news story daily by presenting conservative perspectives, liberal perspectives, and then the editor's moderate synthesis — sometimes adding international viewpoints. This format directly combats oversimplification and helps readers locate where genuine complexity exists versus where outrage is manufactured.
- ✓Values-aligned platform curation: Declining speaking invitations where you are the sole woman on an all-male conference lineup, or refusing to fly cross-country for a single one-hour talk when virtual delivery is viable, are concrete ways to enforce personal values through professional decisions rather than just stated beliefs.
- ✓Local community as the unit of change: Advocacy rooted in neighborhood-level identity — framed as protecting neighbors rather than advancing national political positions — stays grounded in human connection. Attending a local protest rather than following national narratives shifts focus from abstract ideology to concrete relationships, which sustains motivation and avoids polarization traps.
- ✓Continuous improvement over perfection: Applying a discovery mindset — something is better than nothing — to personal ethics prevents paralysis. Rather than abandoning values because trade-offs exist (AI use, air travel, plastic), the practice is identifying one additional aligned action each day, treating ethical behavior as iterative rather than all-or-nothing.
What It Covers
Theresa Torres and Petra Mayer share personal strategies for maintaining mental stability during turbulent political times, covering media consumption habits, community engagement, platform responsibility, and how small, consistent acts aligned with personal values compound into meaningful resistance and psychological resilience.
Key Questions Answered
- •Dual-source media consumption: Reading two ideologically opposed outlets daily — one left-leaning, one right-leaning — reveals what each omits from the same story. Theresa reads the New York Times alongside the Wall Street Journal specifically to catch narrative gaps, reducing reactive thinking and building a more complete picture before forming opinions.
- •Counter-polarization through nuance outlets: The independent US publication Tangle covers one news story daily by presenting conservative perspectives, liberal perspectives, and then the editor's moderate synthesis — sometimes adding international viewpoints. This format directly combats oversimplification and helps readers locate where genuine complexity exists versus where outrage is manufactured.
- •Values-aligned platform curation: Declining speaking invitations where you are the sole woman on an all-male conference lineup, or refusing to fly cross-country for a single one-hour talk when virtual delivery is viable, are concrete ways to enforce personal values through professional decisions rather than just stated beliefs.
- •Local community as the unit of change: Advocacy rooted in neighborhood-level identity — framed as protecting neighbors rather than advancing national political positions — stays grounded in human connection. Attending a local protest rather than following national narratives shifts focus from abstract ideology to concrete relationships, which sustains motivation and avoids polarization traps.
- •Continuous improvement over perfection: Applying a discovery mindset — something is better than nothing — to personal ethics prevents paralysis. Rather than abandoning values because trade-offs exist (AI use, air travel, plastic), the practice is identifying one additional aligned action each day, treating ethical behavior as iterative rather than all-or-nothing.
Notable Moment
Theresa arrived at a local protest skeptical it would accomplish anything before the next election cycle. She left surprised by the scale of attendance and the unexpectedly celebratory atmosphere — participants wore costumes, carried flags, and projected optimism — which she had not anticipated given the severity of the circumstances.
Episode Transcript
Hi, folks. This is all things product with Petra Villa And Theresa Schwartz. And we're so happy you're here. Theresa, the world is heavy on me these days. Really. How do we stay sane when the world goes bonkers? Any tips and tricks? What are your personal what is your personal approach? Yeah. Okay. I know we have a global audience, so we're gonna try to keep politics out of this. I will share I live in The United States. I'm having a really hard time with some of the stuff that's happening here. I'm gonna leave it at that. And so one of the things I'm trying to do is to find small ways to create the world I would prefer to live in. Examples? Because I don't for that maybe. Know what else to do. Right? Obviously, I can vote. I do vote. I go to, like, public protest events. I do the things that help connect me with other people with shared values and to see that what you read about in the news is not all Americans. I think that's important. I also think I think about this a lot in my work, like, little things. Like, I'm I'm not gonna go speak at a conference if which is a little weird because it's like I'm contributing to the problem. But, like, if your entire conference is men and I'm the only woman you're inviting, I'm probably not gonna go. Yeah. Hello, guys. I look at things like I have a lot of conversations with conferences and companies about why I'm not getting on a plane for a one hour talk. Yep. And, I always find it interesting when companies espouse sustainability, but then they want me to get on a plane for a one hour talk when I can do it virtually. This doesn't mean I don't ever get on a plane for a one hour talk. I'm coming to product at heart, but, there's other things I'll be doing in Europe at that time. It's not just for a one hour talk. So some of it is just trying to live my values, like, day in and day out even when it's hard. And it's not always easy. Like, you could I I could imagine someone's listening to this and they push back and they say, yeah. But you use AI and AI is terrible for the world. It turns out so are cars and so are so is TV and so is plastic. So we have to all make trade offs. I think the thing for me is it's the same mantra I use with discovery is something is better than nothing. And if every day I'm looking at something more that I can do, then I it's this continuous improvement mindset. I will share a big thing I did recently. Last year, I joined the board of a nonprofit. The nonprofit is called World Pulse, and their whole mission is to connect …
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