In this solo episode of The Space in Between host Leigh Morgan explores how to stay awake, engaged, and fully human in a time when fear, outrage, political division, and emotional overwhelm can sometimes constrict our capacity to lead and be our fullest selves. Drawing from her own experience responding to the 2025 dismantling of USAID, Leigh reflects on what happens when we care deeply about suffering in the world — but find ourselves consumed by doomscrolling, dread, and the constant churn of unsettling headlines. The episode offers a powerful invitation to creating inner spaciousness, where we stay awake, but do not let fear consume us.
Leigh shares practices to feel grief without drowning in it, hold conviction without hardening, and reclaim agency even when we cannot control the outcome. She shares her personal journey, reflecting on her global development work in sub-Saharan Africa and northeastern India, insights from psychology, and how a powerful podcast conversation with Kaye Foster about reflective practice, leadership, and hope helped her remember and reclaim agency. The result is a timely and deeply human reflection on how we keep our hearts open, our minds clear, and our spirits steady in chaotic times.
Episode Overview
Leigh begins with a personal story from February 2025, when she read headlines about the administration’s plans to dismantle USAID. Because of her years working at the Gates Foundation, Nia Tero, and in biotech, those headlines were not abstract. They brought back vivid memories of mothers waiting for vaccines, communities relying on health clinics, and women in rural India using small loans to build businesses and send their children — including daughters — to school.
As the news unfolded, Leigh noticed herself checking headlines constantly, even when she was no longer learning anything new. Her body was tense. Her sleep was disrupted. Her nervous system felt as though it had forgotten how to rest. That experience led her to reflect on two psychological dynamics that help explain why fear can become so consuming: negativity bias, the brain’s tendency to remember threat more strongly than safety, and emotional contagion, the way fear, tension, and dread can move between people and through systems.
But this episode is not about looking away. It is about learning how to remain awake without being overtaken. A conversation with Kaye Foster helped Leigh remember that dread is not the only thing available to us. Through reflective practice, gratitude, and attention to our own emotional activation, we can create enough space inside ourselves to keep laughing, loving, contributing, and working for positive change.
Key Messages
- Fear is human, but it does not have to lead.
Leigh names fear, dread, and grief as normal responses to real suffering and real uncertainty. The goal is not to deny those feelings, but to keep them from occupying more space inside us than we want to give them. - Negativity bias and emotional contagion are real.
Our brains are wired to notice threat, and our social systems often amplify fear, outrage, and grievance. Understanding these dynamics helps us respond with more awareness and less reactivity. - Doomscrolling can feel like responsibility, but left unchecked can become constriction.
Staying informed matters. But there is a difference between learning what we need to know and repeatedly consuming information that leaves us depleted, anxious, or numb. - Agency is not always about controlling the outcome.
Leigh reminds us that agency does not mean we can single-handedly change policy or prevent suffering. Sometimes agency begins with reclaiming our inner ground — how we breathe, what we notice, where we place our attention, and how we choose to show up. - Inner spaciousness is where personal and collective agency can flourish.
Inner spaciousness allows us to bear witness, work for justice, remain connected, and resist becoming hardened by fear or despair.
The Three Practices
1. Practice Gratitude
Leigh shares her daily practice of naming or writing down one thing she is grateful for each morning. Gratitude does not erase suffering or injustice, but it helps widen the frame. It reminds us that fear is not the only thing present.
2. Ask: “How do I stay human at a time like this?”
When anxiety, anger, or dread begin to rise, Leigh uses this question to return to herself. The question creates a pause. It softens the body, opens the breath, and invites a more grounded response.
3. Know Your Boiling Points
Boiling points are the moments when we become emotionally activated — when the body tightens, the mind races, or we begin to numb out. Leigh encourages listeners to notice these signals and treat them as information. When we are nearing a boiling point, it may be time to stop scrolling, breathe, call a friend, laugh, rest, or reconnect with what steadies us.
Why This Matters
We are living in a time when fear can move quickly — through headlines, social media, political rhetoric, workplaces, families, and communities. Many people are trying to stay informed and responsible, but are also carrying emotional weight that leaves them exhausted or shut down. This episode offers a different path: not denial, not despair, but a more spacious way of staying engaged.
Inner spaciousness is not withdrawal. It is not indifference. It is a leadership practice, a spiritual practice, and a human practice. It helps us stay clear enough to act, tender enough to care, and steady enough to keep going.
Key Concepts from the Podcast
- USAID and the real-world consequences of foreign aid cuts
- Negativity bias & emotional contagion – why we remember negative things more than positive, and how that can constrict us in polarized times
- Reflective practice and self-leadership as keys to releasing negativity
- Kaye Foster’s reflections on Spelman College students and constructive dialogue
- The importance of gratitude, breath, humor, friendship, and knowing when to step away from the scroll
Closing Reflection
At the heart of this episode is a simple but powerful invitation: stay awake, but do not let fear consume you.
Creating inner spaciousness helps us remember who we are before dread, outrage, or despair decides for us. It is where we can hold grief and hope, conviction and humility, clarity and compassion. It is where we reclaim agency — and where we remember that even in difficult times, we are so much more than fear.
