Mindset Neuroscience Podcast · Stefanie Faye

Suppress, Switch, Engage: the neuro-mechanics of your inner voice and how to fuel your purpose

·1 hr 15 min·5 clips

Michelle Curran says, “wiggle your toes,” and the jet finally smoothed out during air refueling.

Stephanie Fay speaks with Michelle Mace Curran, a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and the fifth woman to fly with the Thunderbirds, and the conversation starts from shared interest in how the outdoors, brainwave states, and mental health overlap. The episode grows out of a summit last year hosted by the Veterans for Outdoor Advocacy Group, where their work crossed in a way that made neuroscience feel lived rather than abstract. Curran's perspective gives the discussion a grounded entry point because training as a fighter pilot and handling daily challenges makes imposter syndrome, fear of failure, limiting self-beliefs, and lack of purpose harder to brush aside. The conversation keeps returning to the way people can get stuck in a repressed state when they are afraid of looking dumb. That fear can stop someone from taking a risk, talking to someone, or submitting an application. The episode treats that pattern as a built network of associations rather than a character flaw. It also emphasizes that the nervous system is often reading social situations as if they were life-threatening, even when the actual stakes are much lower. From there, the discussion turns toward how those associations can change. One example is the shift from believing that social value comes from success alone to understanding that value can also come from being visibly human, doubting yourself, and keeping at it. The episode brings in serotonin as part of the conversation about social value and the way the brain responds to feeling seen and affirmed. It then expands into the idea of purpose and function as topics worth exploring rather than fixed answers. Daydreaming is treated here as more than drift or distraction. The show frames it as something that can help regulate the nervous system and tap into different brain systems. That leads into the contrast between default mode activity and task positive states, which is presented as a practical shift rather than a technical abstraction. Throughout, the interview keeps linking neuroscience to ordinary experiences like fear of failure, self-doubt, and the need to keep iterating. The tone stays reflective and connected, with explanations that build on one another instead of flattening complexity. The result is a conversation about how people make meaning, why they freeze, and what it takes to move again. It is as interested in embodied experience as it is in theory. It holds space for ambiguity while still pointing toward usable ideas. And it suggests that motivation is less about forcing confidence than about changing the conditions that make action feel possible.

As heard by us

A reflective look at social fear, self belief, and meaning through a pilot's perspective.

Michelle Mace Curran gives the episode a clear center of gravity. A former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and the fifth woman to fly with the Thunderbirds, she talks with the host about social fear, imposter syndrome, self belief, and how the nervous system learns associations…

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Why you'd press play

When fear keeps shrinking your next move.

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