Lyrics

Voiceover: What are emotions?
An evolutionary perspective
Suggests a simple definition of emotions
Based on the forces that shaped them.

Lost my friend to pleasure-seekin’
Good feelings for bad reasons
Freaked out and went off the deep end
Bad feelings for bad reasons

Lost my friend and now I’m grievin’
Bad feelings for good reasons
Played with my kids all weekend
Good feelings for good reasons

There’s nothing more amazing than the brain of a Homo sapien
Nothing more prone to a craving – appetites 
Calibrated by a thermostat that decides
When it’s satisfied and when it’s time to have a slice

Homeostatic device – glucose and insulin
Temperature regulated by sweating and shivering
Happiness and misery, anxiety and equanimity
Situations reliably triggering emotions

Evolution with has one plot
Fitness maximization, genetic jump shot
Keys to behavior unlocked, until something comes along
To convert a semi-auto to a bump-stock

Smoke detector principle: the brain trigger-happy
Every snapping twig a potential predator attacking
Safe assumption, when predators are snacking
But when it’s panic attacking, it gets a bit distracting

The system is adapted to the triggers of the past
But the mechanisms jam in the modern mishegas
Mismatch, a brain open to learning, a system dopaminergic
The next drug invented, I really hope I’m allergic

I know ‘cause I learned it, enjoyment is a fitness key
The shape of an opioid gets in between
Oxy is a proxy for a natural poppy
In the brain that signals what kind of action to copy

And after addiction, comes manic depression
Which tends to intervene after a massive rejection
When status competitions beat you into submission
Depression is a mechanism to get you to pivot

Just like pain is a mechanism to get you to change
Position and quickly get your fingers out of the flames
With minimal tissue damage sustained – I miss my friend
Now is the rationalization of our discontent

Lost my friend to pleasure-seekin’
Good feelings for bad reasons
Freaked out and went off the deep end
Bad feelings for bad reasons

Lost my friend and now I’m grievin’
Bad feelings for good reasons
Played with my kids all weekend
Good feelings for good reasons

Lost my friend, and I’m still feelin’ the hurt from it
I see his face reflected in random surfaces
Is he alive or dead? This vivid search image
Is adaptive when actively determining where a person is

Grief, is it an adaptive feeling that triggers
Rumination: “I could’ve done something different”?
And if it’s fully out of my hands, does it enhance
My assessment of risk in the makin’ of future plans?

I can’t… the ache is sharp and intense
And no less painful when I’m makin’ it make sense
How many weeks get to elapse after a major event
Before the DSM is ready to say I’m “depressed”?

Drifting in a daze, contemplating giving up
Feeling like a bacterium with flailing cilia
Of course it’s better to chart random courses
Than persist in one direction, into a vortex

So true, organisms do what they’re supposed to
Act as if fitness enhancement is the only rule
Evolution gave us high mood and low mood
To assess the relevant situations we go through

Persisting in the pursuit of a goal that’s not gonna go through
Triggers a hopeless feelin’ of low fuel
Even in the produce section of Whole Foods
Infinite calories available, but no juice

Just a mobile screen in my hand scrolling the feed
Everybody seems happier and more successful than me
Until ambition triggers a manic episode
I’m about to go platinum with this scientifical flow!

But no, now I’m back on the sofa, my daughter’s upstairs doing homework
My friend is coming over, he’s on his bipolar meds and he’s sober
And no longer chasing the ultimate feeling
And yes, it helps to know the ultimate reason

Lost my friend to pleasure-seekin’
Good feelings for bad reasons
Freaked out and went off the deep end
Bad feelings for bad reasons

Lost my friend and now I’m grievin’
Bad feelings for good reasons
Played with my kids all weekend
Good feelings for good reasons

Voiceover: What are emotions?
Emotions are specialized states that adjust
Physiology, cognition, subjective experience
Facial expressions, and behavior
In ways that increase the ability
To meet the adaptive challenges of situations
That have recurred over the
Evolutionary history of a species.

Emotions are for our genes, not us.