Delusional Optimism with Dr. B

Neurobiology of Difference

In this episode of Delusional Optimism, Dr. B looks into the psychological explanation for religious extremism and racism. She explains how people’s neurobiological functions are impacted by social influences over time to cause dysfunction.

Listen in to learn the importance of taking the Harvard Implicit Bias Test to help you determine your implicit bias against particular groups of people so you can rewire your brain. You will also learn why you need to engage in conversations that recognize extremism as functionally problematic.

“We have the capacity today to really look at our neurobiological system that’s been impacted by social influences.” [26:02]

What You Will Learn:

• [0:32] Intro
• [1:09] How fear in people promotes bias against the object they feel fear towards. How bias works in people.
• [4:07] The process that allows the healthy brain to quickly stop making prejudiced judgments and behavior in a situation.
• [8:19] The psychological explanation for racism. The relationship between brain disfunction and religious extremism and racism.
• [13:42] Why you need to take the Implicit Bias Test to measure your implicit bias against a particular group and how to rewire your brain.
• [18:54] How to be aware of your implicit bias and rewire your brain in order to have resilient healthy strong culturally inclusive communities.
• [21:56] How to stop people with dysfunction neurological issues from running major systems that are built to protect people.
• [24:44] Why we need to recognize extremism as functional problem in the brain. 

Relevant Links:

Email: contact@drbconnections.com

Website: https://www.drbconnections.com/

Implicit Bias & Skill Building: Growth & Change & Implicit Bias

In this episode of Delusional Optimism, Dr. B dives deep into the meaning of implicit bias and the Harvard Implicit Bias Test. She shares her experience with taking the test thrice, the different results she obtained each time and Harvard’s response to her results.

Listen in to learn the difference between implicit bias and explicit bias in both white and black people. You will also learn the importance of taking the implicit test and the individual steps you need to take to continue building a just system for all.

 

“We do have some work to do, but it doesn’t have to be bad, it doesn’t have to be hard, it just has to be done in order for all to live in a country where there’s justice.” [26:58]

 

What You Will Learn:

• [0:32] Intro
• [2:34] The Harvard Implicit Bias Test. Dr. B shares her results in taking it thrice and the different scores she got.
• [8:40] The importance of knowing what your implicit bias responses are because it predicts behavior.
• [9:00] Harvard’s response to Dr. B after she wrote to them about her varied test results.
• [11:30] Why research shows that black people prefer explicit bias rather than implicit bias due to its honesty which is the complete opposite of what white people want.
• [14:11] Why you need to take the Implicit Assessment test not only for black and white people but for other groups and take it more than 3 times.
• [15:22] The importance of setting up an affinity group.
• [17:04] Why you need to practice this test and retrain your brain to be less biased towards a certain group which will in turn train your behavior to be more aware.
• [18:03] Read books about racism- the history of the burned down and mass graves in Greenwood village, Oklahoma that was done by a white mob.
• [21:44] The need for redistribution and reorganization of how the system was set up to make it fairer.
• [23:55] Learn to ask questions and get answers from real black people while integrating with them.

Relevant Links:

Email: contact@drbconnections.com

Website: https://www.drbconnections.com/

Social Determinants of Health and Resiliency

In this episode of Delusional Optimism, Dr. B talks about the importance of building resiliency by infusing protective factors in all communities. She explains the current disparities that exist between the African American community and the white American culture and why we need to own our privilege based on our skin color.

Listen in to learn how you can take responsibility and make an individual change by learning more history about other cultures. 

“It doesn’t take much effort or even funding, it requires knowledge and a willingness to learn how to implement these kinds of innovative strategies and policies into human resources.” [21:22]

What You Will Learn:

• [0:32] Intro
• [1:20] The insensitive threat from the president against the Juneteenth holiday to instill fear and anger to people of color.
• [6:33] How the Coronavirus has shed light on the disparities between the African American community and the dominating culture of white Americans.
• [10:43] The protective factors that led to more resilience in the past and today. Why we need to own up to some privilege that we have, based on our skin color.
• [13:12] How to integrate all protective factors across all communities and children to foster resilience and make things better for all of us.
• [16:59] Ways in which we can offer protective factors to children.
• [18:07] The importance of a loving, attuned, and supportive relationship.
• [19:23] How to build protective factors in the education and curriculum sector.
• [20:10] The importance of building protective factors into our social service system and healthcare.
• [22:00] How you can be part of the change by acknowledging social injustices and learning history.

Relevant Links:

Website: https://www.drbconnections.com/

Email: contact@drbconnections.com

Civil Unrest IS Optimism

In this episode of Delusional Optimism, Dr. B talks about how the current civil unrest is a sign of optimism especially because people are demanding change in the middle of a global pandemic. She shares a horrific story of just a fraction of what black women and children would go through in slavery and how it justifies the anger and the need for change.

Listen in to learn what you can do as a white person to eliminate ignorance and see a community beyond the color of your skin.

“Our skin tone is just so irrelevant to the globe. What’s relevant is our depth and ability to weave ourselves together with compassion and love.” [23:55]

What You Will Learn:

• [1:11] Intro
• [1:37] Why the protesting in the middle of a global pandemic is the best thing that could happen.
• [3:01] The horrific story of how black women were imprisoned, raped, and their children taken away at 10 years old.
• [5:24] Why we need to get uncomfortable while learning the reality of the horrific black and white history that happened.
• [7:03] The importance of being empathetic and compassionate towards people who endured the atrocities by reading and listening to their stories.
• [9:01] How trauma is carried through epigenetically from one generation to another.
• [11:13] The optimism that is reflected by the current protests in the middle of a pandemic shows that change is about to happen.
• [15:18] How peaceful protests are activated by the parts of our brain that invites optimism.
• [16:29] How to challenge yourself and learn history- especially black history.
• [19:35] Why we need to teach our children how their actions are optimism and how they can optimistically predict their expectations.
• [20:28] How to look beyond our selfishness and add people from different ethnicities to our community.

Relevant Links:

Website: https://www.drbconnections.com/

Opening Schools During a Global Pandemic

In this episode of Delusional Optimism, Dr. B talks about the current debate of whether children should go back to school in the middle of the global pandemic. She answers the question ‘is it safe or crucial for our children to go back to school right now?”

Listen in to learn the importance of education and the learning process away from class. You will learn how you as a parent can get involved in teaching your child in a ‘non-traditional’ way and keep them safe.

 

“The idea that we’re just going to have all these kids fall so far behind doesn’t really pan out in modern educational history or theory.” [20:50]

 

What You Will Learn:

• [1:05] Intro
• [2:06] The complexity of education that goes beyond what happens in a classroom with a textbook and a single teacher.
• [3:00] Why this is a time where we choose between life and learning.
• [7:02] Understanding that children do pass the virus and can get it and the danger that exists if they were to go back to school.
• [9:25] The evidence in major subjects that shows the danger of COVID-19 spreading.
• [13:02] How we can do things creatively and differently without risking the lives of our children.
• [16:01] How to teach kids how to read in 20 hours to be more efficient with their time and teaching time.
• [18:02] How the 20 hours of reading model shows us that kids are not going to forget to read. And why they might forget what they were learning because of utilizing their brains in other different activities.
• [21:02] How to prioritize literacy learning with project-based learning experiences at home.
• [23:58] Why our lack of enough resources to handle children at home is making us want them to go back to school even when it’s unsafe.
• [25:04] Why we need to enlist the corporate world into the idea that they’re part of the family and education system.

Relevant Links:

Website: https://www.drbconnections.com/

Optimism & Neuroscience: A Personal Story

In this episode of Delusional Optimism, Dr. B shares her personal story about a road accident that happened 26 years ago and how optimism contributed to her recovery. She also talks about the two sides of the brain that host optimism and pessimism and the function of each.

Listen in to learn why too much optimism can be risky and needs to be regulated to keep you safe.

 

“We have to be delusional optimistically- imagine what our new world is going to look like and that’s going to take an effort from everybody.” [25:22]

 

What You Will Learn:

• [1:11] Intro
• [2:33] The definition of both an optimist and pessimist.
• [4:26] How Dr. B always sees opportunity even in negative situations.
• [4:50] She narrates the story of a road accident that happened to her 26 years ago and how optimism worked in her during her recovery and getting back to normal.
• [10:44] How being an optimist helps people recover from adversities.
• [14:00] Optimism resides in the active mode of the brain that sends positive feedback from your motor movements.
• [16:22] Pessimism lives right opposite optimism and makes us overly cautious and watchful about things. It minimizes the ability to be confident in our effectiveness in life.
• [17:41] Why optimism has to be mediated by other parts of the brain to minimize overly risky behaviors.
• [18:30] Learning how to work your optimism spirit to go past any life’s hurdle.
• [24:10] How we can make our world a better place from now on by being delusional optimists.

Relevant Links:

Website: https://www.drbconnections.com/

Born Biased: Understanding the Neurological Foundation of Babies and Bias

In this episode of Delusional Optimism, Dr. B dives deep into the neurological foundation of babies and how they become racially bias. She describes what research shows about babies forming their racial presence at infancy as opposed to the myth that it is taught to them.

Listen in to learn what you can do to wire your babies for the inclusiveness of people of different ethnicities.

“We can raise babies who are wired for inclusiveness of difference and can still navigate safety.” [12:36]

What You Will Learn:

• [2:54] The belief that parents taught children racism implicitly and explicitly in the past.
• [3:59] Studies show that children develop racial bias at infancy and not in preschool.
• [9:12] Understanding that infants are going to prefer caregivers’ faces and why we need to expose babies to people of different ethnicities.
• [10:01] How to wire babies’ brains to match up the similarities and differences between their loving caregivers of a particular race and with different faces of different ethnicities.
• [12:03] How our brains’ bias turns into outward racism.

Relevant Links:

Website: https://www.drbconnections.com/

How to Build A Resilience Centered Education System

Welcome to today’s episode of Delusional Optimism with Dr. B! Today she talks about the importance of instilling resilience into our children through education. She explains the history of our current education system and why it is so flawed.

Listen in to learn the importance of a community-based education model as opposed to the institutional education model that exists today. You will also hear Dr. B’s flawed experience with our education system.

“We need humans to be dedicated to the process of growing small humans into happy healthy socially responsible loving citizens.” [16:56]

What You Will Learn:

• [1:04] Why we need to redesign the US system of education to make it more about citizenship and resilience.
• [3:06] She explains in detail when and how our current system of education came into place.
• [6:17] Why our forefathers were emotionally impaired and more focused on building a country more than showing humanity.
• [9:00] Why we need to acknowledge racism and make amends for the crimes committed against black people.
• [10:28] Dr. B shares her education journey and how her resilience was challenged due to existing flaws in the system.
• [12:45] She describes the ‘high performing learning communities’ research project.
• [16:08] Why we need to break away from the institutional education model to a more community social-emotional protective factor model of education.
• [16:15] What we need to do to ensure we’re building resilient communities. 

Relevant Links:

Website: https://www.drbconnections.com/

Rising to the Occasion of Resilience

In this premiere episode of Delusional Optimism, Dr. B gets to describe herself and what it means to be both a developmentalist and a humanist. She talks about the power of resilience as part of a person’s character instilled since childhood.

Listen in to learn what congruence means and its purpose in building a system with the same values as what is taught in our homes. You will also hear the importance of learning beyond what we know and do things differently from what we were taught in limitation.

“Fairness isn’t about everybody getting the same thing, fairness is about everyone getting what they need.” [15:28]

What You Will Learn:

• [1:52] Get to know Dr. B as a developmentalist at heart and a humanist.
• [4:46] The power of resilience and the ability to overcome adversities and trauma.
• [5:57] Why we need to do things differently and learn new solutions to change the current situation.
• [8:09] The power of congruence- being valued outside the immediate presence of your being.
• [10:39] How to build our systems based on the same values that we have in our families to create a more resilient society.
• [14:13] The meaning behind the name of this podcast ‘Delusional Optimism’.
• [17:06] How to build resiliency as a part of someone’s character from infancy.

Relevant Links:

Website: https://www.drbconnections.com/