And so we reach the final episode in this series of Brain Yapping, and after 12+ weeks of discussing how the brickbats and misfortunes of life have affected them, what have Dean and Rachel learned? They’ve learned, basically, that shit happens. But also, you aren’t obliged to find 'deeper meaning', or 'silver linings', or 'positive outcomes' from it. Not every trauma has to have an upbeat spin, and while it’s fine to acknowledge and accept that bad things happen, it’s also fine to wish they hadn’t. The modern obsession with focussing on the positives may be doing us more harm than good overall. N.B. This isn’t meant as a general review of the series. Thanks for listening. We’ll be with you again soon. Support the show at patreon.com/cosmicshambles and get lots of extra content!

Since the last episode, Rachel has gone on two trips, and Dean has attended his father’s wake, more than 18 months after his passing. As a result, our hosts discuss the importance of rituals and ceremonies for our wellbeing, the cons and unexpected pros of long intervals between, and whether the pandemic has presented us with an opportunity to rejig traditional customs, to make them more beneficial for everyone. Also includes the worst wedding tribute of all time. Support the podcast and The Cosmic Shambles Network by becoming a subscriber at patreon.com/cosmicshambles

Throughout the pandemic and lockdown, a lot of attention and emphasis was placed on exercise, and keeping fit. Countless people insist that it’s a key facet of good mental health. But, is it? Can regular exercise really be such a potent benefit to Mental Health? If so, why? If not, what’s the deal there? And can it end up doing more harm than good? With both of them engaging in their own efforts to be fitter, Dean and Rachel explore this issue in depth. ​Support the show at patreon.com/cosmicshambles and get lots of extra content!

Dean and Rachel return to their podcast after an unplanned hiatus, during which they genuinely forgot they were in the middle of doing a podcast. But problems with memory and thinking are thing that many have complained about during the pandemic. What’s going on there? Why would having a more predictable life make you less able to remember it? Our intrepid Brain Yappers explore. And Dean, who has a PhD in memory formation and retrieval mechanisms, finally gets to be an actual relevant expert for once, rather than just blagging it while Rachel humours him. Support the podcast by subscribing at patreon.com/cosmicshambles

The return to normal life continues apace, and having run out of everything else to talk about, Dean and Rachel fall back on the classic British standby: the weather. But for a good reason; with travel still restricted and indoor pursuits only tentatively available, the weather plays a bigger role in our day-to-day lives than ever. How does this affect our moods and mental wellbeing, and why? Support the Brain Yapping podcast and the CSN as a whole by subscribing at patreon.com/cosmicshambles

With vaccine rollouts proceeding apace, weather improving, and lockdown restrictions easing, it seems like life is returning to some sort of normality. But what’s it like to go from prolonged lockdown to in-person socialising? Are we going back to normal, or is it some strange new reality, with new rules and expectation? And what effects can this have on us on our wellbeing, and why are some people likely to find the process surprisingly stressful. Support the podcast, and the Cosmic Shambles Network as a whole at patreon.com/cosmicshambles

If there’s one thing that Covid and lockdown hasn’t been stingy with, it’s criticism. All the new rules, regulations and expectations introduced by the pandemic has inevitably led to many more opportunities to condemn people for getting things wrong. Why do we do this so readily? And why is criticism often so impactful, to the extent that it can interfere with our mental wellbeing? And what is it about Tinder that can lead to so much of it? NB: If you leave negative feedback about this episode, that’s just proving our point. Support the show at patreon.com/cosmicshambles and get lots of extra content

The COVID 19 pandemic is a global problem. Climate change is an even bigger one. But people are individuals, and can rarely make meaningful interventions on such scales. This has many implications for our wellbeing and mental health. To mark the launch of her new book 'Everyday Activism - How to Change the World in Five Minutes, One Hour or a Day', Rachel leads the discussion for a change, as she and Dean explore exactly how much influence a single person can have, and how they can maybe change feelings of helplessness against seemingly insurmountable problems. Support the show at patreon.com/cosmicshambles and get lots of extra content!

The current mantra of protecting the NHS at all costs is logical and helpful, but nothing comes without cost. A listener reports that he’s been far less rigorous about seeking help for his health issues during the pandemic. This spurs Dean and Rachel on to discussing the possibility that, particularly with regards to mental health matters, the fixation on protecting the NHS could lead to increased stigma, judgement, and people enduring harm to their own health to spare any burden on the system that exists to prevent that exact thing. Support the podcast and the CSN writ large at patreon.com/cosmicshambles

Dean has young children. Rachel doesn’t, but knows many people who do, and it seems they’re all somewhat concerned about exactly what long periods of lockdown, isolation, and lack of school is doing to them, both in the short and long term. Dean and Rachel delve into the practicalities, science, and general misconceptions of just how vulnerable and fragile children are (or aren’t), in the third episode of Brain Yapping: Battle Damaged. Support the podcast at patreon.com/cosmicshambles and get lots of exclusive extras!

Why is Fight-or-Flight still a thing? Our brain’s unhelpful primitive reactions to modern stresses. As a listener points out, a lot of the stress we experience in modern times, and the subsequent harm this does to our mental health, can be pinned on our brain’s fight-or-flight response, reacting to things unnecessarily. But if we now live in a world where physical threats don’t lurk around every corner, and fighting or flying are rarely any use, why do we still have this reaction at all? Dean and Rachel get into how the brain really evolves, and the time scales it requires, as well as unpicking the way modern lockdown life sets off our brain’s stress systems, in the second episode of Brain Yapping: Battle Damaged. Support the podcast, and the Cosmic Shambles Network by subscribing at patreon.com/cosmicshambles

We’re often told we should reach out and seek help when going through periods of poor mental health. But does this still apply when literally everyone else is in the same situation? This is the reality that the pandemic and lockdown has forced upon so many people. Particularly Dean, who experienced great personal tragedy in 2020 and found himself unsure about how to deal with it when everyone else had struggles and concerns of their own. He and Rachel thrash out what you’re supposed to do in such situations, and how it can affect people, in the first episode of Brain Yapping: Battle Damaged. Support the show and gets loads of exclusive content at patreon.com/cosmicshambles

We’d write a tag for this episode, but we can’t be bothered… In this final episode for the series (or was that season?) Dean and Rachel talk about procrastination, laziness, risk and reward and the “gift" of emanating mess. Rachel and Dean will be back after summer, if they get round to it, (they will), with a brand new bunch of episodes for you. Support the show, and everything at the Cosmic Shambles Network, by visiting and pledging to our Patreon at patreon.com/bookshambles

Travelling can be rewarding, exciting, mind expanding, and also, a little odd to wrap our brains around. Rachel and Dean talk about the weirdness of culture shock, from small differences (did you know Americans don’t use kettles) to cavernous shifts (in Mexico, according to Dean, you may find yourself on a bus, with people carrying chickens in boxes) and why it can feel so discombobulating. Support the show at patreon.com/bookshambles

In a society where you can summon food at the press of a button, how can anyone be hangry? Dean and Rachel talk about how low blood sugar can make us boil over and why evolutionarily, that's a good thing! Also, the curious fact we’ve universally accepted that “blue liquid” is the perfect stand in for all gross bodily fluids. Support the show, and everything at the Cosmic Shambles Network, by visiting and pledging to our Patreon at patreon.com/bookshambles

Rachel and Dean discuss misophonia and how to not tackle people to the ground when they do perfectly normal things that make sounds you find infuriating (keyboard clacking, anyone?) Also, finding the sweet spot in the world of sound between the random and the predictable and giving pigs a fairer go. Support the Brain Yapping podcast and blog by pledging at http://patreon.com/bookshambles

It’s already episode 8 of the Brain Yapping podcast and in this week’s episode, Dean and Rachel cringe at the sound of their own voices and tell us why we’re not who we hear we are… Support the show, and everything at the Cosmic Shambles Network, by visiting and pledging to our Patreon at patreon.com/bookshambles

Enjoy this week’s episode all about being in autopilot, which Dean and Rachel assure us they were not when producing it (though they couldn’t for the life of them describe how they got home). Support the show, and everything at the Cosmic Shambles Network, by visiting and pledging to our Patreon at patreon.com/bookshambles

Recently on Twitter, Rachel was set upon on Twitter by some particularly nasty followers of a certain British TV presenter. So this week on Brain Yapping Rachel and Dean talk about tribes and jibes, memes from the mean and why changing our mind can be so hard. Support the show by pledging on Patreon at patreon.com/bookshambles

In this week’s episode of Brain Yapping, Rachel and Dean stand on the precipice of compulsion as they discuss what happens in the brain when we have intrusive thoughts (no cats were put in bins during the making of this episode, but if one had been, we couldn’t really explain why. NB - Listeners are advised that this episode contains some discussion about suicide and OCD. Support the podcast and the entire network by pledging at patreon.com/bookshambles