Generation Anxiety

Latest Episodes:

13. Delete Your Account May 20, 2018

After an anxiety induced extended hiatus, we have made it out of the house and into the studio (which is in our house) to record an episode about Facebook.

Cambridge Analytica helped bring to the world’s attention what we have known all along: Facebook is a steaming pile of anxiety inducing poison. We ask questions like does Facebook really improve our lives, or were things better when we lived in a series of networked caves and grunted at each other around a fire? Were cavemen affected by toxic masculinity and how is Facebook like your abusive ex boyfriend?

Further reading:

With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit (Professor Jean Twenge in The Conversation)
The Secret Ways Social Media Is Built for Addiction (Vice)
Facebook admits it poses mental health risk – but says using site more can help (The Guardian)
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Analytica? (Green Agenda)

Join the Generation Anxiety Facebook discussion group (yeah we know) or email us at hello@generationanxiety.com.

12. If You Can’t Pee There, You Can’t Be There Oct 22, 2017

Living while millennial is hard at the best of times – but imagine if you had an impairment that stopped you participating in ordinary life. This episode we speak to Sara Gingold, disability activist and consult, about the experience of young people living with a disability in a country that doesn’t cater for their needs and sometimes doesn’t even believe in their disability.

Sara describes her own experience of managing Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) sometimes known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). We talk about the systems that are set up to help people live the lives they want to live, like the NDIS and disability support pension, whether they work for young people, why everyone deserves a seat on the train and the terrible scourge on society that is staircases.

To find out more about ME/ CFS or to support people managing the condition visit Emerge.

Sign Sara’s petition to make public transport more inclusive for people with a disability.

11. The Big Gay Episode Oct 08, 2017

Alright, let’s talk about this bloody postal survey then. Love is love, but politics is politics and right now queer love is being voted on by all Australians who know how to use a mail box. This whole crazy situation has the potential to have a serious impact on the mental health of queer young people.

Friend of the pod, Simon Copland rejoins us to talk identity politics, queer spaces, and what a powerful, unbridled campaign for equal love can do to quash homophobia and enhance the rights of everyone in the LGBTIQA+ community.

We send this podcast out with a strong YES and all the love with have to give to our queer friends and their allies.

Song in the outro is “You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me” by Alex Lahey. You can listen to the full song on Unearthed. Her awesome debut album was released last week and you can find out more about that at alexlahey.com.au.

Links:

Listen to more concentrated Simon wisdom on his hit podcast Queers.

Support and counselling services for LGBTIQA+ people (Australia only)

Join the Sunrise Movement or the Harry Potter Alliance (US only)

Join the Generation Anxiety Facebook discussion group and email us your ideas at hello@generationanxiety.com

10. Actual, Real, Goddamn Nazis Sep 24, 2017

The election of Donald Trump and the sudden prominence of white nationalists organising in the streets has caught many people by surprise. But for people of colour, racism has been a part of their daily experience of the world their entire lives.

In the week after the events in Charlottesville where an anti-racisim protester was killed by a white supremacist, and Pauline Hanson wore a burqa in Parliament to speak against Muslim immigration to Australia, we spoke to Tim Lo Surdo and Ngaire Sidhu from Democracy In Colour, a new organisation run by people of colour to tackle structural racism in Australia, to talk about what this volatile political moment means for people of colour and how growing up under structural racism impacts their mental health.

You can support Democracy In Colour here: democracyincolour.org/donate

Outro music is “Black Lives matter” by Birdz. You can listen to the full song on Unearthed, Apple Music or Spotify.

9. What We’ve Learned So Far Jun 18, 2017

We’re halfway through this 2017 nightmare so we’re looking back at what we’ve learned so far, examining a few more issues of anxiety that have arisen for young people, like “attacks” on free speech and a moment of hope thanks to our best boy’s UK Election result.

We’re opening up our anxious chats to the community, so if any aspect of modern young life is keeping you up at night, we want to hear about it. You can join us on our subreddit r/generationanxiety or you can join our Facebook Discussion Group.

8. Reclaim Your Brain From Advertising May 30, 2017

Ads are a ubiquitous part of the world we’ve grown up in: they peer at us from billboards, sit next to us on the train and obnoxiously clog up our news feeds. No matter where you look there are ads and it’s only getting worse. You probably find ads annoying, but have you ever stopped to ask what impact all that advertising might be having on your brain? Because it turns out it’s probably not good for you.

In this episode we speak to Tim Hollo from The Green Institute to find out why advertising makes us feel bad and what we can do to reclaim our brains.

Are you anxious because you feel like the world is ending? Well the good news you aren’t crazy and it definitely is. In fact scientists confirm that all the predictions of a fiery climate change apocalypse are being realised promptly ahead of schedule! And you can thank the fossil fuel industry and years of political inaction for that one.

This week co-hosts James and Cat both reveal that thinking about the climate apocalypse is their day job and we all get our climate nerd on and talk about what it will actually take to slow down global warming and safeguard our future.

Sources:

The Coming ‘Instant Planetary Emergency’ (The Nation)

Climate Change Is Giving Us ‘Pre-Traumatic Stress’ (Motherboard, Vice)

When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job (Esquire)

Places to get involved

Fossil Free Universities Australia

Join the campaign to #Repower Victoria (Environment Victoria)

Volunteer with Australian Youth Climate Coalition

SEED Indigenous Youth Climate Network

6. What’s Neoliberalism Got To Do With It? May 02, 2017

It doesn’t seem to matter what the topic is, every time we talk about the issues facing young people today one word keeps popping up: neoliberalism. It appears to be at the root of so many issues facing this generation of young people, but do we even know what it is?

To help us understand neoliberalism we are joined by Amanda Cahill, one of Australia’s leading thinkers on economic development and founder of the Centre for Social Change. Amanda helps us understand what neoliberalism is, where it comes from and where we can go from here.

If you liked this episode please leave us a review on iTunes and subscribe wherever you get you podcasts. You can find previous episodes at generationaxniety.com

Sources

5. The Rent is Too Damn High Apr 19, 2017

Housing is at the intersection of security, stability and community: all things we know are vital to mental wellbeing, but the housing market in Australia is stacked against tenants and first home-buyers. With the news that the rent-bidding “Rentberry” is coming to Australia promising to push already sky-high rents even higher, we are joined by Yaelle Caspi from the Tenants Union of Victoria to take a look at what that could mean for young renters. We find out why housing is the number one worry for young Australians and what we can do to fix it.

Sign the petition to Make Renting Fair

Further Reading

4. Where Did Worker’s Rights Go? Apr 07, 2017

Is your manager justified in asking you to work for nothing but pizza? At a Coles in WA a few weeks ago, one manager asked for four hours of unpaid labour just weeks after penalty rates had been cut. It seems that our rights at work are being eroded from every direction and it’s enough to cause a bit of anxiety.

Harriet Leadbetter from the Victorian Trades Hall Council talks to us about why shit employers and bad work makes young people anxious and how organisations like the Young Workers Centre are empowering youth to fight back.

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