What if indifference isn't always apathy, but is sometimes rooted in discernment?

In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy explores intentional indifference as a mature, regulated response to a world that constantly pulls for reaction, access, and emotional labour. Not the numb, checked-out kind, but the kind that comes from knowing where your energy actually belongs.

This episode is about withdrawing attention without withdrawing integrity. About choosing not to engage - not because you can't, but because you won't.

• The difference between avoidance and intentional indifference

• Why over-responsiveness is often mistaken for care (and leadership)

• How indifference can be an act of self-respect, not dismissal

• What it means to stop being "available for extraction"

• Indifference as a nervous-system skill - not a mindset trick

• How leaders, creatives, and sensitives burn out by caring too broadly

This is an episode for anyone who has been told they're "too much," "too intense," or "too available" and is ready to practice cleaner, quieter power.

If this episode landed for you:

• Follow and message Betsy on Instagram @thebetsyreed

• Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)

• Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for (Voice) Notes from the Edge - some public, some subscriber-only: substack.com/thebetsyreed

• Work with Betsy: coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com

In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy speaks directly into the current moment: politically, socially and somatically.

Recorded in February 2026, amid rising authoritarianism, surveillance and collective nervous system overload, this episode is a grounded, unsmoothed reflection on what it means to stay human, regulated and ethically awake when the world feels volatile.

Anchored by a teaching from Thích Nhất Hạnh, Betsy explores the idea of war loops: the internal patterns of fear, urgency, compliance, reactivity and self-betrayal that quietly rehearse the very dynamics we say we want to resist.

This is not a political analysis or a call to action.

It's a nervous-system-level inquiry into freedom, leadership and choice, especially for those embedded in corporate or institutional systems who find themselves asking, "But what can I actually do?"

In this episode, Betsy explores:

• What Thích Nhất Hạnh meant by "uprooting war from ourselves"

• How authoritarian dynamics are rehearsed internally through unregulated nervous systems

• The difference between response and reaction in moments of pressure

• Why smoothing, complying or "keeping things nice" is not neutrality

• How self-regulation becomes a form of ethical and political agency

• What it means to tolerate discomfort without outsourcing your values

• How leadership begins with interrupting internal war loops

Mid-episode nervous system practice:
A short, grounding regulation exercise designed to interrupt fear-based loops and restore choice before analysis or decision-making.

Closing inquiry + practice:
Betsy guides listeners through a reflective somatic inquiry:
Where is the war within me?
Exploring how internalised pressure, urgency, contempt or shutdown show up — and how to contain them without judgment.

This episode is for listeners who are paying attention, feeling the cost of that attention in their bodies, and wanting to stay clear, calm and human without turning away.

A gentle invitation after you listen:
No fixing. No forcing. Just noticing:

• Where you feel pressure to comply

• Where you override your own signals

• Where you rehearse domination, contempt or self-erasure

• Where choice becomes possible again through regulation

If this episode landed for you:

• Follow and message Betsy on Instagram @thebetsyreed

• Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)

• Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for Voice Notes from the Edge - some public, some subscriber-only: substack.com/thebetsyreed

• Work with Betsy: coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com

In this expansive and clear-eyed conversation, host Betsy Reed is joined by journalist and leading sustainability commentator James Murray, founding Editor-in-Chief of BusinessGreen. Together, they explore what it means to stay awake, human and oriented in the face of accelerating climate risk, AI and systemic uncertainty.

Recorded at a moment when climate tipping points are no longer abstract projections but lived realities, their dialogue flows between science, politics, technology and psychology. Betsy and James examine how climate change has become a kind of "theory of everything", shaping economics, geopolitics, migration and everyday life, and what it takes to remain informed without tipping into paralysis, denial or performative optimism.

With honesty and nuance, they discuss the real risks in the future, the breakthroughs already underway, and the inner work required to hold the tension of either a potentially catastrophic or a potentially bright future. Because, right now, we don't know which we are heading for.

This is a conversation about choosing informed optimism as a practice not a posture, and about learning how to stay in relationship with complexity rather than turning away from it.

• What climate tipping points really are and why they matter now

• Why climate change has become a "theory of everything" for modern life

• The emotional and psychological impact of watching seasons, systems and certainties shift within a single lifetime

• Where real hope lives: clean tech, adoption curves and the pace of innovation

• Carbon removal, regenerative approaches and what comes next

• The tension between democratic processes and the urgency of climate action

• Navigating the information Wild West without losing discernment

• What it means to practise informed optimism in dark and uncertain times
  
  

James Murray is the founding editor-in-chief of BusinessGreen, the UK's leading publication covering the green economy, net-zero transition and sustainable business. He launched BusinessGreen in 2007 and has spent nearly two decades reporting on, analysing and challenging the evolution of climate policy, clean technology and corporate responsibility. In 2020, he was named Digital Editor of the Year at the AOP Awards. His work is widely read by policymakers, business leaders and sustainability practitioners navigating the transition to a low-carbon economy.

• Read James' piece The Climate Theory of Everything

• Check out the Business Green website
  
  

Connect with Betsy

• Instagram: @thebetsyreed

• Like, subscribe and leave a 5-star review wherever you listen to podcasts to help more people discover The Discomfort Practice

• Check out Betsy's new, more personal Substack, (Voice) Notes From the Edge, to get her 'hot takes,' deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes insights