Mildly Thriving

Would Life Be Better if We were Psychopaths?

• Mildly Thriving • Episode 15

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On this episode of Mildly Thriving, Kimberly unveils her latest theory: life might be easier if she were... a psychopath. Yes, really. Don’t panic! Hear us out. A little break from constant empathy, worrying what people think, and our chronic shortage of confidence? Tempting. We dig into what psychopathy actually is (spoiler: it’s not what we thought) and stumble across some surprising facts we definitely did not know.

Insta: @MildlyThrivingPod

Original audio by Patrck Joseph (Thanks Patrick)

Insert legal disclaimer and jargon here... but like... don't steal our shit?


Kimberly:

Hi Meredith. How are you?

Meredith:

I'm really good. How are you? Good. Yeah. We're fucking thriving

Kimberly:

five.

Meredith:

No, try again. Yes. That was good.

Kimberly:

yeah. I would also say that I am like feeling higher than. Mildly thriving.

Meredith:

Fuck yeah.

Kimberly:

I think it helps that I just spent a few days in Texas, not necessarily because it was Texas, but because it was 80

Meredith:

degrees. I was gonna say, seeing the sunshine will really turn your life around.

Kimberly:

Yeah. And, and there was a lazy river at the

Meredith:

Dude, I wanna hear all about that. I'm so jealous. That sounds

Kimberly:

This hotel has like a waterpark and

Meredith:

sounds like Great Wolf Lodge.

Kimberly:

Yeah. So I accompanied my husband to a conference and they held this conference at this, gigantic resort. And while he was working,

Meredith:

you were drinking by the lazy river. Yeah. Fuck

Kimberly:

Yeah, I mean, it was, it was fantastic. That's, that's the dream. Right. I

Meredith:

gonna say that really is living the dream. Yeah. That, that's what we mean when we say living the dream, not when we're in our office and someone asks how we are, we're like,

Kimberly:

Like, yeah. That, I think it's actually when people say that they're being sarcastic. Yes. Oh, okay. I just, I wasn't sure if you understood that or not, so I figured I would,

Meredith:

I mean, I, I am a little bit behind sometimes, but you know, I did get that one.

Kimberly:

Yeah. did I say that? I'm Kimberly and you're Meredith.

Meredith:

No, but thanks for saying that. Now

Kimberly:

Well, just welcome back to another episode of Mildly Thriving. Woo. And for once we are on the higher end of that

Meredith:

you know what I think has to do with it,

Kimberly:

uh, where I'm at in my cycle?

Meredith:

Yeah. A yes, because yesterday I was, very low on the thriving scale. Oh. Today I have bounced back. it's not a work day.

Kimberly:

yes, number one,

Meredith:

it's not my Sunday, which is when we usually do this. So I'm. Having the Sunday scaries. Yeah. And it is the morning and not the evening, so I haven't lost hope in the day yet.

Kimberly:

Oh wow. Okay. Well way to take the wind out of those. That sale

Meredith:

More realistically, I haven't lost all of my energy yet.

Kimberly:

Uh, yeah. You're also medicated today.

Meredith:

Definitely. And caffeinated.

Kimberly:

Uh, yeah, I'm on my fourth, shot of espresso, so I like, yeah, so, do you wanna know what today's topic is? Do you know?

Meredith:

I do know because guess what, what? I looked at the spreadsheet.

Kimberly:

Oh my God. We have a spreadsheet.

Meredith:

Good job. But, uh, proud of you. Yes. I'm actually very excited about today's topic, so please tell us all.

Kimberly:

Okay, so today's topic is about my theory that my life would be way better if I was a psychopath. and everyone I've said that to is like, oh, absolutely. And so then I was like, okay. Do I even know what a psychopath actually is? So then I had to like get on the internet and I Googled what actually is a psychopath?

Meredith:

Did you look up like the DSM five definition of what is a psychopath?

Kimberly:

Yes.

Meredith:

Oh, I'm so proud of you.

Kimberly:

Here's what's crazy is a psychopath isn't an official diagnosis. Did you know that? I didn't know that.

Meredith:

I feel like I should have known that, but no, I

Kimberly:

didn't. I didn't know that. I don't have a degree in psychology.

Meredith:

actually I think I did know that it's, I, you either get like an antisocial personality disorder diagnosis or you get like a No, that's pretty much. That's what a, a sociopath or a psychopath gets diagnosed as?

Kimberly:

Yes. Okay. So it's not in the DSM five and the DSM five is used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental disorders. so it's not in there as an official diagnosis. It's more of a popular, shorthand term for people who meet the criteria for what is called. Antisocial Personality disorder, A SPD, which Meredith just talked about,

Meredith:

man, my college degree came in handy one time in my thirties. This is the one piece of information I could pull out of the reserves,

Kimberly:

yes. Good job. Thank you. Um. So A SPD is a personality disorder characterized by persistent disregard of the rights of other people. Failure to comply with laws and social customs and irresponsible and reckless behavior, Particularly those on the high end of traits like manipulation, lack of empathy, and charm. So psychopathy is a constellation of psychological symptoms that typically emerges early in childhood. Researchers often describe. Psychopathy using two main cluster of traits. There's effective interpersonal traits, that's where the charm, they're very charismatic and persuasive, like the lack of empathy or remorse, shallow emotions, manipulativeness, and a grandiose sense of self-worth. Mm. And then there's like behavioral and lifestyle traits. Um, and those cover how they act and handle rules or impulses and. Their thrill seeking. They're irresponsible. They have poor behavioral control, chronic lying and deceitfulness and just disregard for laws or social norms. So they use all of that, I guess, to like diagnose you in some form or the other, right?

Meredith:

Yes. Uh, I, I think that they look at it in childhood too. Like if any of the behavior traits started in childhood, there's like a childhood version of the disorder called oppositional defiant disorder, where like kids, it's like when they start showing the behavior traits young and it's usually like crazy things like. Pyromania Yeah. Or

Kimberly:

killing animals. Killing

Meredith:

Killing animals. That's the big one.

Kimberly:

Okay. So I think. That I could trade some of my traits Uh, for some of these traits. Mm-hmm. And I would like that

Meredith:

life would be easier. Life

Kimberly:

would be a lot easier. Um, particularly the, charm. Mm-hmm. Being very charismatic and, and persuasive. I'd also like the lack of empathy because Jesus Christ, that empathy shit.

Meredith:

I think that's what started us on this, because I know we've brought it up before and I, I'm sure it's what got you here at some point, but you and I have had conversations about group trips with people or social interactions with friends where we're just like. Why is it that I care so much about making sure that everyone is having a good time or that nothing is going wrong, but other people have zero regard. Right. For, if anything happens to me, it's like I, things would be so much easier if I didn't fucking give a shit about other

Kimberly:

people. Exactly. That whole empathy bullshit, like I'm, I'm over it. Yeah. The other thing that I would really, really enjoy is the grandiose sense of self-worth.

Meredith:

Oh yeah. I like.

Kimberly:

time.

Meredith:

I am hot shit. Uh,

Kimberly:

But like, I'd like to go above and beyond that. Oh yeah. And like, not be afraid to like speak in public or not. Oh, not overthinking.

Meredith:

even think of that. You

Kimberly:

Yeah. yeah. And being like, Sure I could be president. yes. Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. Like why not? I don't really want the kill animals

Meredith:

No, no. We

Kimberly:

for the law.'cause I, let's be real, I'm not cut up for jail. Although it does sound nice to like not have to pay rent or

Meredith:

You're too pretty.

Kimberly:

Or oh, So, um, also in my notes I wrote down that psychopath and sociopath.

Meredith:

two different things. Yes. Okay.

Kimberly:

very, very similar. but these terms are often used interchangeably, but there's a subtle difference. Psychopaths are thought to be more biologically wired that way, where sociopaths are more environmentally shaped and they're more prone to like rage, impulsivity, and unstable behavior because of things that have happened in their environment. Uh, whereas psychopaths are just kind of like. They're born that way.

Meredith:

Okay. That makes sense. Yeah.

Kimberly:

Yeah. I always thought that there, like I couldn't ever tell what the difference was. And like, I think also sociopath is not a clinical, diagnosis, but it,

Meredith:

no, I think they're, they're both more just monikers for

Kimberly:

Yeah. And there is like, it is a thing, but it's more like a. I don't know. Google it yourself.

Meredith:

We're we're trying,

Kimberly:

but I came up with 14 reasons. I originally was trying to come up with 20, but I couldn't get to 20. I just ran out of ideas. Okay. Um, so it ended up being 14. Um, and fucking a, I didn't number this list, so

Meredith:

Just read it number. Do you Don't nobody, nobody can see the list.

Kimberly:

I know, but I'm gonna have to like keep track and be like, okay, this is 1, 2, 3.

Meredith:

You know what? You are a badass bitch, and I have full faith in you.

Kimberly:

my grandiose self-worth, right? Yes. Okay. so number one, I'd never spiral over a text message that just said, Kay.

Meredith:

ooh, oh my gosh. I, I already can't wait to see where this list is going, and I already know I'm gonna relate to every single one.

Kimberly:

Yep. I'd never have to reread an email or a message to make sure that the tone was just right.

Meredith:

dammit.

Kimberly:

Yeah. I would save so much time.

Meredith:

the main thing I use chat GPT for is to make sure I don't sound like a bitch in professional

Kimberly:

Yeah, that was um, I used to use Grammarly.

Meredith:

Oh yes.

Kimberly:

When it first came out and then they introduced that tone feature and oh my God. It totally changed the way that I wrote

Meredith:

I'm a supervisor and so I have to be the one to handle complaints and I get very defensive of my team. I'm like,

Kimberly:

fuck you bitch. Don't talk shit about my people. Yeah.

Meredith:

No, I will look into it, but there have been days where I spent over an hour

Kimberly:

Yeah.

Meredith:

Constructing a reply. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy.

Kimberly:

Uh, number three, I would never feel rejected again.

Meredith:

Ooh.

Kimberly:

Could you imagine? Could you imagine? The amount of rejection I can feel in the most minuscule of rejections

Meredith:

all it takes is like a very direct person to say. No, I don't wanna do that today. And I'm like, oh, my idea was shit. Which, or even,

Kimberly:

or even somebody who's not being direct, who just says like, oh, I don't like that. And I'm like, oh my God, I worked so hard on that.

Meredith:

and you hate me. Which is a reason, I don't like making plans or picking what a group of people does.

Kimberly:

Oh my God. Me either. Or picking the music.

Meredith:

because I don't wanna be responsible for everyone hating it.

Kimberly:

also think that's why I have kept all of my friends, like I keep most of my friend groups separate. I've gotten better in recent years, but I've always like kept friend groups separate. Mm-hmm. It's because it hurts my feelings when I have a friend that is like, Ugh, I don't really like this other friend that you have. And I'm like. That hurts my feelings. isn't that crazy?

Meredith:

I mean, it's not crazy at all. I just, I, yeah,

Kimberly:

Mm. Yeah.

Meredith:

no, it's not crazy at all. But I like, I don't know. I'm like, well, I guess I'll hang out with you two separately if you don't like each other, but I just had this conversation with another friend about Picking friends as adults and. Reminding yourself that it's okay to not like everyone. Yes. Like I, and it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you. It doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with that person. And you shouldn't feel bad for just not having traits in common with another person. But she felt bad because there was a friend in her group that she doesn't like as much as other people seem to, or it gets on her nerves and she feels guilty about it. And I was like. It doesn't mean anything's wrong with you, and it doesn't mean anything's wrong with her. You guys just don't vibe, and that's okay. it's all right.

Kimberly:

Yep. Okay, so number four. I'd never wake up at 3:00 AM and lay awake for the rest of the night thinking about that embarrassing thing I did in seventh grade. Nope. I will not think about how I said inertia instead of inertia. When I was reading in science class, I would not think about that anymore, but I still am. So yeah. Fuck

Meredith:

damn. I still get, that physical cringe feeling. Yeah. Over some, some instances like There is one specific instance that I can think of where I like had to dance in front of a bunch of people by myself. This is not the same story as the cruise story and just, it's probably why that situation scared me so much because I just, every time I think of it, I get the cringes embarrassment feeling.

Kimberly:

Yep. Uh, so number saying no would be super easy and not anxiety producing.

Meredith:

also. Great. But I would like to point out that you counted yourself down that list, and then you never said the number

Kimberly:

Oh, fuck.

Meredith:

but I think it was number five.

Kimberly:

It wasn't number five. Okay. So number six, I would never get roped into doing things I don't want to do. I wouldn't do them just because I felt obligated.

Meredith:

I'm getting better. I also have FOMO sometimes that'll get me to do things. But lately I have been, I have been better, but I think that goes along the lines with like being able to say, no, I just have this fear that someone's gonna be mad at me and yeah, I, you know, I wanna be helpful. And we're people pleasers?

Kimberly:

Yeah. Number seven, I'd be able to watch any kind of documentary and I'd not be afraid afterwards.

Meredith:

Oh, that is, that is not where I thought that was going, and that breaks my heart, but it's also true. I'll explain. Uh,

Kimberly:

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Meredith:

Yeah. What I thought you were going to say was you wouldn't be afraid to watch certain documentaries because you were worried about how they were going to upset you. Because I have some like. I've watched some about the food industry and factory farming that just,

Kimberly:

and then you just feel like a piece of shit.

Meredith:

Yeah. It's like a gut punch. But I actually saw a standup clip the other day where it was a woman asking, uh, the audience. She points out a dude and she's like, what's your biggest fear on a first date? And he goes, being catfished. And Her and every woman in the crowd laugh out loud. She's like, your worst fear is that the person doesn't look like their picture. Yeah. And she goes, Hey, women, what's your worst fear on a first date? And everyone goes getting murdered. Yeah.

Kimberly:

Yeah. Uh, the phrase, uh, men are afraid of getting laughed at. Women are afraid of getting killed. Oof. Like, that's literally, that's it. Yep.

Meredith:

Yep.

Kimberly:

oh, wait, nine. Decision making would be super easy.

Meredith:

Yeah. I want this thing, I'm gonna do this thing. And I don't, I'm not gonna worry about what you think of my decision

Kimberly:

exactly. number 10, I'd never randomly wonder if people were mad at me.

Meredith:

Oh god.

Kimberly:

Number 11. I'd never absorb someone else's mood. I'd be totally oblivious to other people's moods. that sounds wonderful. Or like, I wouldn't be wondering if The people behind me on the plane are mad that I'm taking five seconds longer than

Meredith:

other people. When, you know, everyone else on that fucking plane doesn't give a shit because they're all acting like assholes. Yeah. That, uh, that like how you act on a plane or if you return your shopping cart to the stall are like big litmus tests for if I think you're a good person or not.

Kimberly:

The person in the seat behind me, uh, on my flight yesterday, as soon as the flight landed, she like jumped up and was in the aisle next to Josh's seat and I'm like, lady, you're in the way. We can't get our stuff down.

Meredith:

Oh. Because she's gonna bolt forward before you guys get up. It's so funny seeing the people who jumped up and then seeing them in the fucking terminal being like, oh, did you save yourself some fucking time? Right, Right, right, I'm like, I'm right fucking next to

Kimberly:

next to, yeah. okay, so we're on number 11, I think.

Meredith:

Yes, I believe so.

Kimberly:

I'd make decisions so quickly. Well, I'm repeating myself now. I'm embarrassed.

Meredith:

That's okay. You were trying to come up with 20 I see it.

Kimberly:

Yeah. Um, 12. I'd never need to call myself before or after a social event.

Meredith:

What do you mean?

Kimberly:

Like I get super anxious before a social event or if it's something new or like I'm going to meet someone for the first time, like, Oh, yeah. a Bumble, BFF or like a date or, I'm gonna be in a social situation that I'm not quite sure about. Oh yeah. And I wouldn't have to like run through it a million times. Being medicated has actually helped a lot with that.

Meredith:

That's, it Helps with the worry. Yeah. I, I do not have the obsessive thoughts like that. I don't ruminate over text messages quite as much and I don't get Hyperfocused on the wrong things. Yeah. I can let things go a lot easier and it's one of the best things about being

Kimberly:

Yeah. it's interesting. number 13, if someone ever said We need to talk, I'd be like, okay, cool. Instead of instantly shitting my pants. and number 14, I wouldn't care what people think of our podcast.

Meredith:

Aw, I'm actually glad you included that.'cause I care way too fucking much.

Kimberly:

Yeah, I do too. But also I don't. There's part of me that's like, I'm just having fun but I'm also like, there's certain people I don't want to like tell about it because we talk about shooting of pants.

Meredith:

Well, to counteract that on the positive end, I was talking with one of our mutual friends the other day, catching up with what we were doing in life And. I was talking about the podcast and I came upon the realization as I was talking that I haven't always had hobbies that I get like super into. And I, I think back and it's actually something that bothers me. I think that I want to do things, but the execution of doing that is harder in my mind and not worth. What I think the perceived outcome is going to be. So I end up not doing the thing. So I don't feel like I've had a lot of hobbies or just things that I can call my own, right? And I was really proud because this is like the first time that I've had something that I can put my extra time into that I can call mine and even if nothing comes of it, like we've said it, I have a hobby that is mine.

Kimberly:

I think looking at it as this is a hobby, this is a fun thing that I get to do. We're having fun

Meredith:

and, and getting to talk about things that we wanna talk about. Yeah. Like right now. Oh. Um. something to my list? I, I do. In fact, I'm glad you came up with a list because I wrote it down. Oh, okay. On the way here I don't know where this comes from, but this is a pretty specific example. Oh, okay. Uh, so I was talking to boat guy'cause we're going to Vegas and we had made a bet about something recently that he lost and oh, The loser's supposed to buy the winner a, a dinner of their choice and we're gonna be in Vegas. And so it was like, pick a fancy dinner anywhere you want. Loser buys the winner dinner. That rhyme. So I won the bet and I was thinking about it and I was like, even. If I wanted to pick the fanciest place in existence, I couldn't do it. I feel like it's a shitty thing for me to do, or it's somehow selfish for me to pick somewhere super expensive. If someone else is paying for my meal, I will intentionally get something that I don't necessarily want the most because it costs less than something else on the menu. I do not know where that comes from, but I'm super self-conscious about like, making other people do something for me. I'm not gonna get the most expensive thing on the menu. Right. But I will like. Weigh my options and if there is a significant difference in price, I'll pick the cheaper thing.

Kimberly:

Huh, interesting.

Meredith:

I don't know why. I just feel bad.

Kimberly:

So if you were a psychopath,

Meredith:

I would order the most expensive thing on the menu. Lobster and C Bitch.

Kimberly:

Bitch. Yes,

Meredith:

But Boat guy told me to shut up and was like. do that. I was like, yeah,

Kimberly:

why don't you just pick where you genuinely want to go?

Meredith:

I will. I'm not going to like search what's the most expensive restaurant in But the point is like you could have food of any, any type in any price point in Vegas. Right. And so I'm going to pick something that I really like. Regardless of price point, but

Kimberly:

at a girl, that was the point. Yeah. Good for you.

Meredith:

sorry. Working memory, very poor was one of those things you wouldn't apologize.

Kimberly:

I don't have as much trouble with apologizing as some people do, and I tailored this list to just

Meredith:

No, that's fair.

Kimberly:

The psychopathy that I am trying to, uh, incorporate into my life. Uh, this list is all about me. Oh, So, um,

Meredith:

look, I'm, I'm proud of you for not,

Kimberly:

but yes, I do think that that would be a thing is that there would be no apologizing. Yes. That would be on your

Meredith:

list. Yeah, that I wanted to add it, but I was like, well, if you already said it then I don't need to add it, but I would, I would apologize less.

Kimberly:

Yeah. Yeah. No. That would be, on your list. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, we could make another episode that is the 14 things on Meredith's list.

Meredith:

Oh, well, I'm sure if, if given the time I could, I could think of some things. Yeah. Um,

Kimberly:

Um, but all about me, so

Meredith:

you know what? That's fair. You came up with the outline, you did the work. I think it should be

Kimberly:

about Yeah, exactly. God damn it. Um, so apparently. Yeah, there are actually downsides to having these psychopath traits,

Meredith:

like not feeling bad when you kill someone.

Kimberly:

Uh, yeah, I heard that might be one of them. Um, yeah. Apparently psychopaths miss out on like all the heartwarming parts of the human experience of like loving people and like loving

Meredith:

people. I was like, wait, what?

Kimberly:

what?

Meredith:

Is it bad that we can't think of other heartwarming experiences?

Kimberly:

Well, I mean, I think a lot of heartwarming experience comes from love or caring or empathy. And

Meredith:

I feel things very deeply. Yeah. And not just in love, but I am that person who will Get choked up seeing a sunset or like, you're having a really good day and you're in a really pretty place. And it's just like. I will take that moment of gratitude and just be like, this is so cool. I'm so lucky that I get to live the life I live and that it somehow brought me here. So, and I do appreciate those moments. So yes, I would be sad to not experience them.

Kimberly:

Yeah. So you're crying because you're sad, you're crying because you're happy, you're crying because something was funny. You're crying'cause you have to poop.

Meredith:

Oh yeah. Sunsets, poops all make me cry. Oh, I do what? Sorry, while we're on the topic of poops. Oh, okay. Can I just point out that I appreciate everyone who continues to send me and you and the podcast? Yes. Reels or anything that has to do with shitting your pants. Yes. Because keep sending them our way. We will continue to share them, but I have people on my personal account that now send them to me. Yeah. It's just like, for the podcast, I'm like, thank you.

Kimberly:

You should, you should share those on our, on our stories. the other reason why being a psychopath is not that great is because they're statistically more likely to end up in jail. Apparently 25% of the prison population versus 1% of the normal population, our, the, our psychopaths. So I think the 25% prison population seems shockingly low to me.

Meredith:

Oh, I, I think that's a pretty, that's a pretty solid amount.

Kimberly:

Like to me. Don't you think that more people would be psychopaths if they end up in jail? But I mean, I don't

Meredith:

know. Well, you are also assuming a perfect criminal justice system where every guilty person ends up in jail or,

Kimberly:

Yeah. It's valid though. The other thing was that they tend to have, issues with their careers. Like they can climb the career ladder very quickly and find success and like become the CEO really quickly. But, they can make, stupid risks. Your coworkers don't like you, they don't trust you. You ignore consequences. And so then as a result, you, you know, get fired or you end up in jail

Meredith:

are the people that do like, uh, investment fraud

Kimberly:

yeah.

Meredith:

Stuff, stuff like that. Just not caring what happens.

Kimberly:

So I found a Forbes article, oh. that was talking about the careers that are most likely to have psychopaths. Do you wanna guess what the number one

Meredith:

career with psychopaths?

Kimberly:

Yeah.

Meredith:

Healthcare?

Kimberly:

No.

Meredith:

Okay. Um, should it be obvious?

Kimberly:

It, I wasn't surprised,

Meredith:

Banking, invest. No,

Kimberly:

No. It's a specific career title. It starts with a C and ends with an o.

Meredith:

oh CEO. I was like, what? I was thinking of it in a different way, and the only reason I said healthcare is not because I think healthcare professionals are psychopaths. In fact, I've encountered many kind, caring healthcare professionals, and I think a lot of people get into that field for that reason. But I think doctors or like surgeons specifically, being interviewed or talked to about why they became a doctor. And not everyone wants to help people. Some people just like playing God. Yes. And I'm quoting,

Kimberly:

yes. Um, so number one was CEO, number two was lawyer. Ooh, number. I

Meredith:

why didn't I think of that?

Kimberly:

yeah. Number three was like a media, television, radio host. Uh, number four. I'm surprised that this is so high on the list, but somebody in sales,

Meredith:

you get to like, interact with a lot of people and you get to manipulate

Kimberly:

people. Yeah. but to have that higher on the list than surgeon. So surgeon is number five. This one I think really surprised me was. Number six, which is journalist.'cause you kind of think of like journalists as like the people who, bring to light these horrible things that other people are doing. but then when you kind of look at it from the other lens of like, these are people who are willing to like write horrible stories about Britney Spears and they'll do anything to like, dig into people's lives, to like expose them or, or whatever, just to like get the story.

Meredith:

Barbara Walters versus the, uh, the paparazzi like Right. Two very different ends of the spectrum.

Kimberly:

Yeah. Did I say surgeon?

Meredith:

You did say surgeon. You said it's number five?

Kimberly:

Yeah. Okay. Number seven is police officer.

Meredith:

Again, position of authority.

Kimberly:

Yeah. Didn't shock me. Yeah. This one I'm like, now that it's been said, I'm like, oh, that doesn't actually surprise me that much. But number eight is a clergy person. So somebody who's in the church in a position of authority.

Meredith:

Think about the parallels between a clergy person and like the leader of a cult.

Kimberly:

Yeah.

Meredith:

There's bad apples in every, of course, every career. Of course. That doesn't mean we're saying they're all bad.

Kimberly:

No, it is just, this is like, these are the careers that are most likely and I don't know how Forbes came up with this

Meredith:

list. Yeah, I'm, I am curious how, I mean, I wonder if they like took the psychopaths in prison population and like. Figured out what they did as a career before they went to prison.

Kimberly:

Right. Yeah, I don't, I'm not really sure. So after that is number nine is a chef. I thought that was weird. I'm like, what? But I guess I've never, ever been in that industry and I have no idea. And then number 10 is a civil servant, slash politician, which I'm surprised that that's so far down on the list.

Meredith:

I think it's easy to be like, why isn't that number one? But at the same time, like. I don't know. I think maybe that's too much spotlight for somebody with, with those tendencies. Yeah.

Kimberly:

know. I don't know. And then some of the careers that are like least likely to have. Psychopaths are like artists and social workers and teachers and like caregivers I just thought it was, that was very interesting. Yeah. And um, I'm gonna channel. My inner psychopath now. Okay. I'm gonna try. I like this. I don't know if it'll work, but I'm gonna kinda, I'm gonna kind of try,

Meredith:

okay.

Kimberly:

okay. There's some specific traits that I am very excited about

Meredith:

gonna try to be overly confident. Yeah. And under

Kimberly:

empathetic. Yeah. Yeah. That's it, that's all I've got for you today. So I love this.

Meredith:

Random uh, I was talking to my brother this morning. And I sent him a picture of Gunner and, and gunner's, obviously getting very old, but you know, him and my mom always ask like, how's little Gunner? How's he doing? And he was like, oh, how's my gunner? And uh, I was like, he's good. He's old. He, he shits everywhere. And, um. He was like, Meredith, I love you, but Gunner was old five years ago, like, and I was like, don't you dare. He is just a

Kimberly:

Yeah. Hello. 15 He went from like being 14, a 14-year-old baby to being a 15-year-old Jerry Geriatric dog. Like,

Meredith:

well this started because both my brother and boat guy have recently sent me. Videos from the same Instagram account, which is adorable. It's this man who has a, a geriatric dachshund, and it's like his chronicles of, did the Dachshund make it to the pee pad today? Oh. And it's like we wake up in the morning, dog goes to drink water. He's like, oh, oh, are we gonna make it? And it's like half the time the dog will pee like right on the corner of the Pee Padd. It's just like, oh. And you can't help but laugh.'cause

Kimberly:

it's just

Meredith:

like, A, it is funny, but B, I get it. Yeah. I'm going through the exact same thing. My dog doesn't know what a fucking puppy pad is. Yeah. And I put them all over my house. He will find the one spot that

Kimberly:

it's not here. Yeah. He's like, I don't wanna pee on your things. Yeah, yeah.

Meredith:

Uh, lately he's been dragging my shoes into his bed. I'm assuming it's because they smell like me, but yesterday I came home to my two house shoes, my two tennis shoes, and a rain boot all in his bed. weird. We're getting weird. Yeah, we're getting weird with it.

Kimberly:

It's cute.

Meredith:

Mm.

Kimberly:

Kind of weird. Is he peeing on them?

Meredith:

No, and he's not chewing on them. Oh, okay. It's just cute. Uh, it's just he's laying with them, but he has been finagling himself out of the diaper somehow and peeing by the door but knock on wood, he has not pooped in the house in like, since before Mexico.

Kimberly:

Wow.

Meredith:

I'll take it. These are the small wins. Okay. We can stop talking about my geriatric dog now.

Kimberly:

Okay, so on that note, that is all I have for you today. Thank you for listening to another episode of Mildly Thriving. If you would like to text us and tell us

Meredith:

one of your reasons why you would like to be. psychopath. A psychopath or, or you know, anything along those lines.

Kimberly:

In the show notes, there's a little link that says, send us a text and you can just send us a text message. We can't respond to you, but you can send us a text message. Sweet.

Meredith:

Sweet. Or you,

Kimberly:

you can follow

Meredith:

us. Yeah. Yeah. Or you could follow us on Instagram at mildly thriving pod. And you can send us a dm. Yeah. Look at us.

Kimberly:

Go. Yeah. Oh my God. Look at

Meredith:

us. Who would've thought?

Kimberly:

Yeah. Run. Um, yeah. So we will see you with another episode here very soon.

Meredith:

Yeah. Hopefully this reminds you that you're a good person.

Kimberly:

Yeah. And that mildly thriving. Is thriving Thriving enough. Bye. bye.