How to Not Destroy Ourselves

This Friday I'll be at New York City's Nerd Nite discussing "How to not destroy ourselves: lessons from science fiction". Here's a sneak description of my talk: 

2017 sure does seem like the darkest timeline: our politics are broken, technology is disrupting society, and the planet is warming. But we’ve been here before, at least in the imaginary worlds of science fiction. Join psychologist Dr. Ali Mattu as he investigates how we got into this mess and what science fiction can teach us about getting out of it.

Purchase tickets at NerdNite.com.

Why I love Wolverine

A non-spoiler review of Logan, Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine film.

Exposure at a Star Trek Convention

Part 1: Journalist Erika Check Hayden travels to Sierra Leone and sees ebola up close and personal for the first time. Part 2: As a child, psychologist Ali Mattu suffers from paralyzing social anxiety. Erika Check Hayden is an award-winning San Francisco-based science, health, and technology reporter. She writes for the science journal Nature, and on a freelance basis for a variety of publications. She is the incoming director of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Science Communication Program. Find her at erikacheck.com or on Twitter @Erika_Check. Ali Mattu is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety and body-focused repetitive behaviors (trichotillomania/hair-pulling disorder and excoriation/skin-picking disorder). He aspires to bring psychology to everyone, everywhere by hosting THE PSYCH SHOW, writing about the psychology of science fiction at Brain Knows Better, presenting to the public, and advocating for the brain and behavior sciences through the American Psychological Association. Dr. Mattu is an assistant professor at the Columbia University Medical Center.

Anxiety has been a part of my life since Kindergarten. It got in the way of being a Trekkie. But then Star Trek helped me find a way to face my fears. Thank you to The Story Collider for helping me to tell this story. 

COPD: Highly Illogical - A Special Tribute to Leonard Nimoy

Photo by Michael Loccisano, Getty Images

Sometimes life comes together in surprising ways.

Earlier this month at Star Trek: Mission New York, I had the opportunity to work with Julie Nimoy, Leonard Nimoy's daughter, and help her tell the story of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the illness that took her father's life. She was generous, courageous, and wanted to do everything she could to ensure others don't suffer the way her father did. We shared stories about her father and she loved hearing about the impact he had on my life.

It was a wonderful moment in time that I will cherish. 

Our Polarized World Needs Star Trek

Tom Whalen’s Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.

For the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, I wanted to write about the franchise's relentless optimism. But my article grew to become much more than that. It became my love letter to Star Trek, what it taught me about psychology, and why we need it now more than ever. Here's an excerpt: 

What was so brilliantly subversive about Star Trek was that it gave people a way to talk about social issues that they might otherwise avoid bringing up. We rarely speak up about politics when we believe that others don’t share our perspective. And when we do get pulled into politically heated discussions (think about your last awkward family dinner), the conversations mostly don’t go anywhere.

Psychology can help explain why this is. When we hear ideas that conflict with our beliefs, our minds fight that information in the same way our immune systems attack a virus. We’re wired to preserve the lens through which we view the world. This is why most conversations about politics don’t change our mind, but only strengthen our preexisting beliefs.

Star Trek, however, manages to bypass its audience’s political defenses because it presents real-world conflicts in ways that we find less threatening. Even today, bringing up the Vietnam War can be polarizing in conversation. But a story about the Federation and Klingons arming opposing tribes on the planet Neural (“A Private Little War”)? That sparks a real discussion, not a shouting match of partisan politics.

Read the full article at Quartz for more.