Radiolab Stress
Apr 9, 2007
Robert Sapolsky, neuroscientist and author known for studying stress and primate behavior, breaks down our stress system. He explains how hormones reroute energy and alter perception. He contrasts life-saving acute responses with chronic stress harms. He explores social bonds, Type A hostility, and surprising animal experiments that reveal what buffers or worsens stress.
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Surviving A Boat Propeller Attack
- Colby Hall survived a boat propeller that shredded his legs and remained calm enough to direct others and get a tourniquet applied.
- He recounts treading water, seeing muscle and flaps of skin, and instructing bystanders to hide children and stop the boat.
Stress Is An Ancient Emergency Program
- The stress response is an evolutionarily conserved emergency program that reallocates energy to immediate survival tasks like running and fighting.
- Robert Sapolsky explains hormones mobilize fuel to muscles, raise heart rate, and shut down digestion, growth, and reproduction during acute threats.
False Tiger Alerts Make You Sick
- Modern psychological stress triggers the same physiological cascade as being chased by a predator, but without physical escape, causing chronic wear.
- Sapolsky notes worry and anticipation repeatedly mobilize energy, promoting hypertension, diabetes, and vascular damage.