It May Help With Your Homicidal Rage Problem!

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: It May Help With Your Homicidal Rage Problem!
Date: January 5, 2026
Podcast Host: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode marks the first "One More Thing" podcast of 2026, in which Armstrong and Getty reflect on post-holiday routines, the challenge of motivation, and how technology—particularly AI chatbots—can offer surprisingly profound psychological support. Through candid discussion and humor, the hosts explore everything from the tedium of returning to work, homicidal rage (or the lack thereof), the psychological and neurological benefits of musical creativity, and the existential perspectives sparked by personal loss.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Back to Work & Modern Attitudes on Labor

Timestamps: 02:15–03:13

• The hosts return from holiday, commenting on the universal sensation of "exchanging my labor for money."
• Amusement is found in Reddit's "anti-work" threads. Armstrong compares them to being "anti-breathing or anti-eating."
  • Quote (A, 02:42):
    "It's so mystifying. It's like somebody being, I don't know, anti breathing or anti eating."

2. The ‘Homicidal Rage’ Topic: Do People Really Feel It?

Timestamps: 03:13–04:18

• Lively debate: Has anyone actually felt homicidal rage?
• None of the hosts seriously claim to have experienced it, though jokes are made and one participant playfully "pleads the fifth."
• They wonder whether women might experience rage differently, but statistics don’t seem to support this.
  • Quote (A, 03:18):
    "But have you ever had homicidal rage or anything?"
  • Quote (F, 03:24):
    "Not that I remember. I think you'd remember."

3. The Potential of AI Therapy

Timestamps: 06:50–08:36

• Both Armstrong and Getty share their skepticism and eventual surprise at the effectiveness of AI as a therapeutic tool.
• AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude provide good advice, sometimes surpassing expensive in-person therapy.
  • Quote (F, 07:13):
    "I guarantee you I've spent six figures on therapy for me, my kids, my family over the years and most of it crap. And I get answers out of these chat Bots where I think wow, that is really insightful. Regularly."
• Armstrong notes that contrary to some therapists' fears, chatbots aren't just sycophants—they offer honest, even challenging feedback.
  • Quote (A, 08:05):
    "Claude specifically has told me like whoa, whoa, whoa, dude, you are way off base here."

4. Finding Motivation & Meaning Through Music

Timestamps: 08:36–16:44

• Armstrong describes turning to ChatGPT for motivation to return to music-making.
• He shares the AI's psychological and neurological benefits of music creation:
  • Emotional regulation: Making music helps channel and process difficult or ambiguous emotions, supporting mental well-being.
  • Identity reinforcement: Stopping creative pursuits causes "low grade identity friction"—a feeling of not being oneself.
    • Quote (A, 12:27, reading AI):
      "Low grade identity friction. I'm not living aligned with who I am."
  • Entering ‘flow’: Making music fosters focus and stress reduction, increasing dopamine and positive mood.
  • Neurological: It sustains neuroplasticity, enhances executive function, supports emotional resilience, and helps slow cognitive decline.
  • The act of creating—even with no intended audience or commercial purpose—brings joy and mental benefit.
    • Quote (A, 16:44):
      "The point is just do it. There doesn't need to be a point. The point is the doing it."
• Getty reflects on how parenthood and life changes can erode personal identity and time for individual passions.

5. Existential Reflections on Mortality

Timestamps: 16:54–18:14

• The recent diagnosis of Senator Ben Sasse with terminal cancer is discussed.
• The hosts contemplate the universal certainty of death and how it should motivate meaningful action now, not despair.
  • Quote (F, 17:56):
    "He said, I found out I'm going to die. But he said, here's something. We're all going to die. I already had a death sentence. So do you."
  • Quote (A, 18:05):
    "Yeah, not. Not to get too metaphysical, but the idea that a spirit and an intelligence like Ben Sass goes away, just vanishes is. It's too painful."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the value of doing things for their own sake:
  "I've long been an activist against the trend that every hobby, every passion, every interest needs to become a side hustle... The point is just do it. There doesn't need to be a point. The point is the doing it." — Armstrong (16:44)
• On mortality as motivation:
  "We're all going to die. I already had a death sentence. So do you. And I thought, that's an interesting way to look at it." — Getty, quoting Ben Sasse (17:56)
• On AI chatbot therapy:
  "Claude specifically has told me like whoa, whoa, whoa, dude, you are way off base here." — Armstrong (08:05)
• On returning to life’s routines post-holidays:
  "Exchanging my labor for money. How about you? And I thought, yeah, pretty accurate." — Getty (02:15)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 02:15 — Discussion on returning to work, anti-work culture
• 03:13 — "Homicidal rage" conversation, gender differences
• 06:50 — Using AI for counseling/therapy
• 08:36 — AI’s practical advice on music, motivation, and mental health
• 12:27 — "Low grade identity friction" and identity discussion
• 14:28 — Neurological benefits of music; parenting and identity
• 16:44 — The value of hobbies for their own sake
• 17:56 — Mortality and urgency in life (Ben Sasse anecdote)
• 18:05 — Reflection on loss and metaphysical questions

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Episode Tone & Style

The conversation blends humor, personal anecdotes, and thoughtful reflections. The hosts are candid and self-deprecating, leaning into their personal experiences and playful banter to explore much deeper themes about motivation, identity, AI, and the meaning of life.

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For Listeners:

If you're considering using AI for self-improvement or feeling listless about your creative pursuits, this episode offers both practical insights and humorous reassurance. It emphasizes that making time for the things you love—whether or not they're "productive"—is a worthy goal in itself, and that mortality is a call to embrace life, not to withdraw from it.

Transcript

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See terms and it might help you with the whole homicidal rage problem. It's one more thing Armstrong and Getty One more thing before we get to whatever that is.

[F]

This is the first One More Thing podcast of the year 2026 as we came back to work after a couple of weeks off and I think a lot of the world coming back to work going back to school, et cetera, on January 5th. I texted a friend of mine this morning, how's it going? And they said, exchanging my labor for money. How about you? And I thought, yeah, pretty accurate. Pretty. Pretty much. Pretty much what we're doing.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's why that whole hilariously goofy, uh, what. What is the Reddit thread, the anti work threat or what? I. It. It's so mystifying. It's like somebody being, I don't know, anti breathing or anti eating. I. I reject the oppression of having to take in calories that are metabolized by the cells of my body and turned into energy. What are you talking about?

[E]

Right.

[A]

Anyway, I don't actually have homicidal rage. I'm as mellow as I've ever been in my life.

[F]

But have you ever had homicidal rage or anything?

[A]

Actual homicidal rage?

[F]

I don't think I have. I don't. I know that I haven't. I know that I've never felt like, boy, if I could get away with it. I don't think I ever have. Not that I remember. I think you'd remember.

[A]

No, no, no. Yeah, I think I probably would remember.

[F]

Katie. Homicide of rage. No.

[A]

Maybe I played the fifth.

[F]

Oh, no. There you go.

[A]

Yeah.

[F]

I wonder if women are more likely to, for a variety of maybe necessary biological reasons, be quicker to homicide or age. I don't know.

[A]

No, can't confirm.

[C]

But I'm sure I've been pretty damn close.

[A]

I mean, this. Stats would not bear that out. Or maybe they're just not very good at it.

[F]

Well, it doesn't mean you need to follow through. It doesn't mean you need to follow through on it.

[A]

A good point. Yeah. Right. Anyway. So anyway.

[F]

Not very good at it.

[A]

Yeah, good one. Actually, transgender women formerly known as dudes. Dudes in dresses are much better at murdering people than, like, real women are. So men are better at, like, everything.

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[A]

So Jack and I have both on and off the air through the last several months, talked about the idea of the various AI platforms as deliverers of like counseling or perspective.

[F]

Cool. I'm fine with calling it therapy.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[F]

Using an AI chatbot as a therapist.

[A]

Yeah. And people.

[F]

And routinely when I bring that up to people they're like, what? You gotta be kidding. And I feel like I can speak with some authority because I guarantee you I've spent six figures on therapy for me, my kids, my family over the years and most of it crap. And I get answers out of these chat Bots where I think wow, that is really insightful. Regularly.

[A]

Yeah, I've got to admit I was skeptical or just unsure how that could be be until I started doing it myself. So over the break I typed this into Chat GPT. I jack agree with you that Claude is an excellent, excellent giver of advice and therapy and is remarkably straightforward and both kind but not like confirming your bull crap.

[F]

No, it does not because that's funny. My I've got a relative. I won't say who because I know how some of you people are. I've got a relative who actually is in the world of therapy and said now the problem with the chat bots is they're just going to tell you what you want to hear all the time. And I said that is the exact opposite of my experience. First of all, the paid therapists tell you that's the other person that's wrong all the time because they want you to keep coming back. And Claude specifically has told me like whoa, whoa, whoa, dude, you are way off base here.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, so. So I was, I had free time over the break and I have, since I was 14 years old, often filled my free time with music stuff, whether writing, recording, playing in a band or whatever, writing lyrics.

[F]

And how'd you have time for self pleasurement as a 14 year old?

[A]

Oh, I do. I worked it in anyway. Well, you know, where there's a will, there's a way and there's a will. Anyway, we got pencil myself in for around bedtime, last a couple, last couple of years at least I've had this feeling of what's the point, why bother? But I've just even having that feeling made me unhappy, but I've been completely unmotivated. So I thought all right, this, this is silly. So I typed into Chat GPT in this case I'm having trouble getting motivated to write and record music. What are the benefits, whether psychological or neurological, to doing that? And I had a pretty strong feeling that the neurological stuff would be compelling. I was effing shocked at how good the psychological stuff was.

[F]

So you were hoping you'd find out that like trying to make music would be good enough for your brain, that it would motivate you to do it, stave off dementia or whatever.

[A]

Right, exactly. Just keep my brain functioning as well as, you know, it can. And again, I saw that coming, but not the psychological stuff. So here, I'm going to read you some of this and we'll keep going until you get bored with it. The lack of that lack of motivation is very common among musicians, especially people who care about quality. Al, if you've ever listened to me, you know I don't. But there are real well studied benefits to writing and recording music that go beyond it feels nice. And understanding them sometimes helps unblock the inertia. Below are the main psychological and neurological benefits framed in a practical way rather than abstract theory. So let's start with psychological benefits. Number one. Emotional regulation and processing. Writing music activates the same mechanisms as expressive writing, but often more powerfully. It gives your brain a structured outlet for emotions that don't resolve well through conversation. Melody and harmony let you process ambiguous or mixed emotions through things language alone struggles with. This often reduces background anxiety and rumination, even when the song itself isn't quote unquote happy. Why this matters. Unexpressed emotion consumes cognitive resources. Music externalizes it gets it out of you.

[F]

That is pretty interesting. So a lot of people who do music, it isn't. It might be completely necessary to them not going nuts.

[A]

Yes, exactly. And not homicidal rage in my. My case. But. And without getting too autobiographical, I let. What were some of those words? Ambiguous or mixed emotions. Middle aged, empty nest, successful career, other interests. I am a whirling ball of mixed emotions and ambiguity. Trust me. You know what, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? How am I spending my time? How long am I going to live? Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Anyway, and then two. And this one hit me. Identity reinforcement for musicians. Creating music reinforces who you are and not just what you do. When you're. When you stop creating, your brain often experiences a low grade identity friction. I'm not living aligned with myself. Creating even privately restores internal coherence and self trust. This is especially important later in life or during periods of transition when identity can feel diffuse.

[F]

Yeah, go back to that phrase. Low level identity friction.

[A]

Low grade identity friction. I'm not living aligned with who I am.

[F]

That's really interesting.

[A]

Yeah.

[F]

That could factor into all kinds of different things. You start, you stop doing the things that are you.

[A]

Right.

[F]

And you have that low grade identity friction like I'm not being me anymore. That, that, that, you know, you'll. I don't want to do the whole what it's going to be like to be a parent thing with Katie. But I know that happened with me being a parent because you don't have time for the stuff that are you at all. At some point it kind of really gets to you.

[A]

And then when the kids fly the nest. Trust me when I say you're like, oh wow. Everything I've been about for decades now is not gone. But it's changed in a fundamental way. So wait a minute now I'm sure I remember, you know, what I used to do and why it gave me meaning. Anyway, what was I going to say? It doesn't matter. Flow and intrinsic reward. Music creation is one of the strongest triggers of flow state, whatever that is. They don't really define it, but I'm sure I could look it up. Flow reduces cortisol, which is a stress hormone which I have been feeling a great deal lately. Increases dopamine during the process, not just at the end, and improves mood for hours afterward. Important recording increases the likelihood of flow because it adds focus and commitment in mastery and agency. Finishing even a rough track provides a sense of control. I can still make things evidence of competence which is, you know, now protection against learned helplessness. This is a subtle but powerful. This is subtle but powerful. Especially if other parts of life feel constrained or repetitive and then they get into the neurological stuff which is just freaking undeniable.

[F]

Yeah. I'm listening to this thinking about my son who has gotten into music and has a lot of emotional stuff I've talked about a lot over the year. Yeah. That be reasons to. For me to encourage him to continue to do the music thing.

[A]

Yeah. I'm just going to throw a handful of terms at you for the neurological benefits. Neuroplasticity maintenance, auditory context, mortar cortex, prefrontal planning regions, emotional limbic systems. Cognitive flexibility supports executive function. You brought that up earlier. Is associated with slower age related cognitive decline. Dopamine, serotonin balance, memory integration. It helps your brain link emotional memory, narrative memory. Sensory memory improves recall and emotional resilience. Your experiences feel more organized internally. And then and this is one of the wild aspects, it says do you want me to give you a couple of like totally low risk ways to ease back into it and so it's easier for you and you don't feel that oh it's going to be a lot of work thing and it gave me a bunch of like exercises to do.

[F]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm a big was on Claude that.

[F]

That did that.

[A]

This was chat GPT. I was chat GPT. Claude is terrific too. Yeah.

[F]

Yeah. And at the beginning of that it mentioned something about similar to writing and I was thinking about musicians and writers who do that. They must have just accidentally or just from doing it a little bit figured out. This makes me feel better. So I'm going to keep doing it.

[A]

Yeah.

[F]

Just intuitively Knew that.

[A]

Yeah. It's funny, I've long been an activist against the trend that every hobby, every passion, every interest needs to become a side hustle that you sell on Etsy. It's funny because I've always. I've always gotten that. That no, if it causes you. The world does not need more birdhouses is the example. Example I always use. There are plenty of cheap Chinese birdhouses if you want a birdhouse. So why would any old guy in his garage build a damn birdhouse? It's because it gives him joy and because it's good for your brain. And as a guy who used to like play shows and make records and stuff like that, I think what's the point? The point is just do it. There doesn't need to be a point. The point is the doing it.

[F]

Do things in short.

[A]

Well, if they make you happy, yeah, do them. Don't worry about the rest of it. You're gonna be dead soon. Too dark.

[F]

I don't know. You're going to be dead soon. Oh, we never.

[A]

Just not soon soon, I hope. But you know, be careful at your local Swedish ski resort.

[F]

Yes, I think this is uplifting. Or not. We didn't talk about on the air. Senator Ben Sasse, who we love announcing over the last couple of weeks, he got diagnosed with the late stage pancreatic cancer, the one that kills you within weeks. And he's probably not gonna live past February, I would guess based on the way things are, maybe not even through January. But he mentioned in his goodbye tweet alerting the world that he's got this. God dang it, what a drag for guy. He's got a degree from Harvard, Yale and that St. John's College I'm always talking about the great books College in Santa Fe. He's an unbelievable brain. But anyway, he announced that and he said, I found out I'm going to die. But he said, here's something. We're all going to die. I already had a death sentence. So do you. And I thought, that's an interesting way to look at it. Yeah, you do have a death sentence. All of us. It shouldn't come as a surprise to you at some point in your life. Yeah.

[A]

I was reading a different thinker saying the same thing over the weekend, oddly enough.

[F]

And. And make that as a motivation to do things as opposed to sit around, think. What's the point?

[A]

Yeah, not. Not to get too metaphysical, but the idea that a spirit and an intelligence like Ben Sass goes away, just vanishes is. It's Too painful.

[F]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, Elon's going to figure that out. How? You can download them into a computer chip or something.

[A]

Download your soul? Hey, honey, where'd that.

[F]

Where'd that.

[A]

Where did I put that chip with my soul on it? I thought it was in the top drawer. Oh, no, we cleaned out the top drawer. We threw it in the garbage.

[F]

Oh. Remind me tomorrow to tell the story about throwing my dirty clothes in the garbage at the hotel and making the Hispanic maids dig through the garbage. I'll have to tell that story on the earth. Whoa.

[A]

Wow. This is white privilege, folks. This is disgusting to me.

[F]

Tomorrow on the Armstrong, I'm gonna write.

[A]

A song about it. It's a protest song. Joe. When aren't you gonna make a YouTube channel or show about you making birdhouse? But you do it all wrong. Oh, that's right.

[F]

We had naked. I thought that was part of it, too. What now?

[A]

It's just completely wrong all the time. And join me again. I would get to the end and every time it'd be completely up. That would be funny.

[F]

God, I suck at this. Anyway, see you next time.

[A]

Well, I guess that's it.

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