# The Emotional Recession: Why Emotions Are the Intelligence We Were Told to Ignore | Joshua Freedman

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dov-baron-show-522623/the-emotional-recession-why-emotions-are-the-intelligence-we-were-told-to-ignore-joshua-freedman
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dov-baron-show-522623/the-emotional-recession-why-emotions-are-the-intelligence-we-were-told-to-ignore-joshua-freedman.md
Podcast: [The Dov Baron Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dov-baron-show-522623)
Published: 2026-03-23T16:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://8115583e-f5ea-4763-b10f-e97f20edee24.libsyn.com/the-emotional-recession-why-emotions-are-the-intelligence-we-were-told-to-ignore-joshua-freedman
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/8115583e-f5ea-4763-b10f-e97f20edee24/2026-03-16_Joshua_Freedman_TDBS_Apple_Podcast.mp3?dest-id=4208516
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Duration seconds: 3502

## Resource

The Emotional Recession: Why Emotions Are the Intelligence We Were Told to Ignore | Joshua Freedman . What does it take to move beyond emotional intelligence into emotional wisdom? 💡 Emotional Wisdom: Leadership When There Is No Clear Path Emotional intelligence helps us solve known problems. Emotional wisdom helps us navigate unknown territory. In this deeply revealing conversation, Dov sits down with Joshua Freedman, CEO of Six Seconds and author of Emotional Rules. For nearly three decades, Joshua and his team have helped leaders across 169 countries understand and apply emotional intelligence in real-world environments. Their research includes more than one million EQ assessments, spanning organizations from the United Nations to Fortune 500 companies. Yet their newest findings reveal something deeply troubling. We are not becoming more emotionally intelligent. We are becoming less. Joshua calls it an emotional recession. Stress is rising. Loneliness is rising. Volatility is rising. Meanwhile optimism, purpose, and emotional capacity are declining. So the real question becomes: What does it take to move beyond emotional intelligence into emotional wisdom? That is exactly where this conversation goes. 🔎 In This Episode Prepare for a conversation that challenges the soft, corporate clichés around emotional intelligence and replaces them with something far deeper. Together, Dov and Joshua explore: • Why emotional intelligence training often fails to stick • The dangerous myth that EQ is about being "nice" • Why emotions are data signals, not distractions • The global "emotional recession" revealed by research across 169 countries • How modern life is overwhelming the human nervous system • Why leadership today requires wisdom, not certainty • The difference between em…

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## Transcript

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