by Nate Hagens
Recorded on March 4, 2026
description
In this week’s Frankly, Nat begins a new series called “Staying Human,” which focuses on what he sees as a prerequisite for everything else: reclaiming a sense of personal agency. He opens with the backdrop of Operation Epic Fury and the greater unrest of 2026, but instead of geopolitical analysis he turns to a question that is reshaping his theory of change: Why does a growing awareness of the plight of the more-than-human often cause paralysis?
Nate explores the gap between awareness and agency through several levels. He draws on the science of learning helplessness and self-efficacy research to examine how neural systems learn whether effort leads to results, and how a digital environment designed to fragment attention can train people to stop investing in their own follow-through. He frames this not as a personal failing but as a predictable consequence of living within a superorganism that advertises choice while reducing its conditions. Instead of prescribing a program, Nate shares exercises he’s been testing with himself: voluntary speed breaks before reaching for a screen, small commitments that rebuild confidence, and even an hour of intentional time. He argues that restorative agency at the individual level is not sufficient to solve our entire predicament, but is a prerequisite for the community-level and institutional work needed to make the future better than default.
Where in your life has awareness of the world’s problems overwhelmed or even paralyzed? Is there a commitment, however small, that can begin to rebuild your sense of traction? And if agency is a prerequisite for everything that follows, consider it something you should practice rather than wait to experience?
View notes and links to learn more
The TGS team puts together these brief references and show notes for the learning and benefit of our audience. However, most of the points made in the episodes carry more weight than a link, and we encourage you to dig deeper into any of these topics and come to your own informed conclusions.
00:10 – Operation Epic Fury, 2026 was Iran
00:25 – Strait of Hormuz,The Strait of Hormuz is practically closed, What this means for oil and gas prices, Which countries will be affected the most?
00:45 – error bar
00:53 – Wide Boundary News Playlist, Wide-boundary perspective
01:45 – The Twilight Zone TV series
03:15 – Communication of a problem without a solution can be ineffective, Stress hormones
04:20 – agency (Self-leadership)
05:10 – money crisisgrowth Chronic fatigue, disorientation, carelessness
06:00 – Metacrisis, Daniel Schmachtenberger – An Introduction to the Metacrisis (The Misery of Man)
06:30 – Nate’s Reality 101 Course (now accessible online)Reality 101 Textbook:
06:45 – Theory of Change
06:55 – Economic superorganism (with a metabolism)
07:15 – Do sharks really die when they stop swimming?
07:45 – Increased surveillance
08:45 – Check Your Voter Registration (US)
09:25 – Information age
09:50: – Inability to change, negative emotions, and reactions such as:
10:50 – freezing reaction, Nervous system overwhelmed, Situations that make people more persuasive
11:05 – Feudalism
11:30 – Orwellian
12:25 – As an evolutionary adaptation, our brains are constantly estimating the controllability of our environment:
13:19 – Learned helplessness
13:45 – self-efficacy
14:07 – mastery experienceSee also Albert BanduraFunctions of:
14:33 – small habit by BJ Fogg
15:06 – How Tolerate the discomfort And Sticking to something (forming successful habits)
15:55 – Biophysical Macroeconomics (More info)
16:30 – Confidence is the key to agency
17:45 – Environmental degradation, Global heating, Global debt
18:35 – Human tendency to rationalize, the neocortex, time blindness
19:35 – Elephant path meditation
21:40 – inertia
26:05 – The social nature of mitochondria,
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Previously published Reprinted on and with resilience permission
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