It’s 11:40 at night. You’re typing out the fight you just had. Not to a friend. To AI.

It answers in seconds. Calm. Kind. On your side.

So why do two therapists think that might be the problem?

Jake Ross, LISW-S, founder and clinical director of The Ross Wellness Group, and Liz David, licensed marriage and family therapist, owner of Hope in Healing Therapy, and founder of the Liz David Collective, both use AI. Neither thinks you should stop. But they don’t agree on everything it’s doing to us.

Thoughtfully Wired is a conversation between two therapists, it is not therapy. If you are in crisis, please seek appropriate support.

Tags: AI, artificial intelligence, mental health, therapy, chatbots, ChatGPT, therapists, relationships, men’s mental health, family systems

You have a spouse, a group chat, and friends since college.

There's almost always someone around.

And you still can't name one person you'd call when it's bad.

In this episode of Thoughtfully Wired, Jake Ross, LISW-S, founder and clinical director of The Ross Wellness Group, and Liz David, licensed marriage and family therapist, owner of Hope in Healing Therapy, and founder of the Liz David Collective, ask why having people isn't the same as feeling connected. Liz looks at the patterns and family rules that keep people at arm's length. Jake looks at what's costing us connection right now, from a schedule with no margin to a lifetime of "I'm good, man." They don't land in the same place, and that's the point.

Cancel culture is often framed as a debate about accountability versus going too far. But what if the more interesting questions are about what happens to us while we're participating in it?

In this episode of Thoughtfully Wired, Liz and Jake explore what happens when certainty comes quickly, belonging feels conditional, and a few seconds of someone’s life become enough for thousands of people to decide who they are.

Why does certainty feel so good when we actually know so little?

Does being part of a group make it harder to question what everyone else seems sure about?

Would we respond differently to someone's mistake if we actually knew them?

And what happens when fear of saying the wrong thing leads people to simply stop saying anything at all?

Drawing from their different clinical training, personal experiences, and the long history of humans deciding who belongs and who doesn't, Liz and Jake also turn the questions back on themselves: Are therapists actually better at staying curious about perspectives they strongly disagree with, or have they simply been trained to look like they are?

This isn't a conversation about whether cancel culture is right or wrong.

It's an invitation to stay in the not-knowing for one more beat.

Because the technology may be new. Human beings really aren't.

No wrong answers. Just different perspectives.