# Racial Trauma and the Nervous System: How Chronic Stress Shapes Our Bodies and Culture

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/trauma-rewired-1367401/racial-trauma-and-the-nervous-system-how-chronic-stress-shapes-our-bodies-and-culture.md
Podcast: [Trauma Rewired](https://stenobird.com/podcast/trauma-rewired-1367401)
Published: 2026-03-16T12:56:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.rewiretrial.com
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/illuminatedwithjennifer/TR_S5E33_-Use_-March_16_Racial_Trauma_AUDIO_A.mp3?dest-id=2428643
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/trauma-rewired-1367401/episodes/racial-trauma-and-the-nervous-system-how-chronic-stress-shapes-our-bodies-and-culture
Duration seconds: 3288

## Resource

This week on Trauma Rewired we step into a big and important conversation about how racism, historical trauma and systemic oppression impact nervous system health. Racism is often framed as a social or ideological issue, but neuroscience tells us something deeper. Chronic exposure to discrimination functions as a persistent threat signal to the nervous system. Over time, that threat shapes stress hormones, inflammatory responses, emotional regulation and even pain perception. These are not abstract ideas. They are biological adaptations to sustained social stress. In this episode we are joined by Lovey Bradley, a NeuroSomatic Intelligence certified practitioner, NSI community facilitator and co- facilitator of the NSI BIPOC Affinity Group. Together we explore how systemic forces shape physiology, how ancestral stress patterns can live in the body, and how chronic exposure to inequity affects both individual nervous systems and the collective nervous system of our culture. This conversation is real and imperfect. It is one small part of a much larger dialogue. We share research, personal experience and reflections from our work in nervous system education spaces. Our intention is not to represent every perspective, but to open a thoughtful conversation about embodiment, representation, safety and the capacity to stay present with complexity. From a neurosomatic lens, post- traumatic growth is not about bypassing trauma. It is about expanding nervous system capacity so we can remain embodied in difficult conversations, process rupture rather than avoiding it, and build the relational tolerance required for collective healing. Topics Covered How racism functions as a chronic threat signal that reshapes the nervous system, not just belief or behavior What the HPA axis, cor…

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## Transcript

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