Nepal Floods, Climate Change, Doomscrolling: How Do We Keep Going?

On this episode of Messy Liberation, hosts Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown get real about climate grief, doomscrolling, and the nihilism that creeps in when disaster feels endless, sparked by the catastrophic Nepal glacier flood and reports of billionaires building bunkers to escape the mess they helped create.

Becky and Taina dig into the difference between staying informed and staying trapped in trauma, why our brains keep replaying footage that hurts us, and how community, agency, and joy become acts of resistance when the world feels like it's on fire. They close with a tribute to Dolly Parton and what her life proves about choosing love over hate.

In This Episode, We Get Into:
• Why the Nepal glacier flood hit so hard, and the "disaster movie" desensitization that makes real catastrophe feel unreal
• Billionaires building underground bunkers (complete with jails) instead of fixing the climate crisis they're profiting from
• The nihilism spiral: "what's the point" thinking and how it shows up differently before and after having kids
• The real difference between being informed and being engaged, and where that line gets crossed into doomscrolling
• Why our brains compulsively replay traumatic footage, and what that has to do with control and anxiety
• Survivor's guilt vs. privilege guilt, and how proximity to suffering (without living it) shapes our response
• The "crazy-making" feeling of watching people deny climate change in real time, and why that's a form of gaslighting
• Divesting from harmful systems vs. reducing our reliance on them, and what to do with the time and energy that frees up
• Surrender vs. submission: how accepting what you can't control can actually restore a sense of agency
• Why joy and grief can coexist, and why withholding joy doesn't prove you care more
• A tribute to Dolly Parton: her wealth given away, her quiet support of Black Lives Matter and the trans community, and what she proves about hate being a choice

Timestamps:
00:00 – Cold open: Becky's Care Bear mug and "which Care Bear are you"
02:51 – The Nepal glacier flood and why it feels almost unreal to watch
04:16 – Doomscrolling, repeated imagery, and the nihilism it triggers
05:14 – Billionaire bunkers (yes, with jails) and what that says about who's "prepared" for collapse
07:45 – Becky turns it over to Taina: restoring some faith in humanity
08:06 – Taina's approach to news consumption and staying "informed without engaged"
09:45 – Unpacking the real difference between informed and engaged
11:25 – How having kids changes the emotional weight of climate anxiety
12:47 – The compulsion to doomscroll and rewatch disturbing footage
16:30 – Why our brains keep seeking control through repetition
19:05 – Survivor's guilt vs. guilt born of privilege
20:00 – Divesting from harmful systems vs. reducing our need for them
21:32 – What you do with the space once you stop doomscrolling
22:25 – The "crazy-making," gaslighting feeling of climate denial
26:10 – The privilege of being disappointed by people in power
27:56 – Community as the antidote: who's in your corner
29:03 – Finding agency in the small, controllable things
31:07 – Surrender vs. control, and coming back to the present moment
33:50 – Acceptance vs. submission — the difference that matters
35:13 – Resilience as a practiced, ongoing skill, not a one-time fix
35:55 – Giving yourself permission to feel joy without guilt
37:52 – Dolly Parton's "rainbows and rain" quote and finding light in the dark
41:00 – Dolly's legacy: $600M given away, support for BLM and trans employees decades early
44:44 – Why Dolly is proof that hate is a choice
45:50 – Closing thoughts and sign-off

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