Science writer, biologist, neuroscientist, and stress expert Dr. Robert Sapolsky presents the inaugural Fenton-Rhodes Lecture on Proactve Wellness.
Sapolsky states that our bodies' stress response evolved to help us get out of short-term physical emergencies - if a lion is chasing you, you run. But such reactions, he points out, compromise long-term physical health in favor of immediate self-preservation. Unfortunately, when confronted with purely psychological stressors, such as troubleshooting the fax machine, modern humans turn on the same stress response. "If you turn it on for too long," notes Sapolsky, "you get sick." Sapolsky regards this sobering news with characteristic good humor, finding hope in "our own capacity to prevent some of these problems... in the small steps with which we live our everyday lives."
This is an edited version of the full lecture that was recorded on September 22, 2016 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts' Colwell Playhouse as part of the Pygmalion TechFest