Breaking the Doom Scroll: Sam Brooks on Building a Good News Habit

Open your phone, check the headlines for thirty seconds, and you'll probably close the app feeling worse than when you started. Host Avik talks with Sam Brooks, a former screenwriter and story editor who spent years inside the recommendation algorithms of digital publishing and gaming, about why the news makes the world feel more broken than it actually is, and what he did about it: he built Rally, an app that surfaces genuinely hopeful, verified news stories every day.

Sam doesn't pretend the world's problems don't exist, and he's clear that a good news feed is not a substitute for therapy. What he offers instead is something smaller and more useful: a simple, low-effort way to shift what you see first thing in the morning, and why that one shift can change more than you'd expect.

About the Guest:

Sam Brooks is a former screenwriter and story editor who moved from Los Angeles to Berlin. He worked inside recommendation algorithms in digital publishing and gaming before building Rally, a free app that surfaces vetted, hopeful news stories from trusted publishers around the world without sugarcoating reality.

Key Takeaways:

• The gap between how bad the world feels and how it actually is often comes down to how news reaches us now: constant, algorithm-driven, and rewarded for triggering strong reactions.
• You don't need to disconnect from news entirely. The goal is being informed without being submerged in it.
• Try attaching a short "good news" habit to something you already do every morning, like checking your phone or having your first coffee. Small and automatic beats ambitious and occasional.
• A good news habit isn't a cure and it isn't therapy. When something genuinely bad happens, let yourself feel it, and lean on real support systems and professionals when you need to.
• A helpful rule of thumb: roughly 80% of what we worry about never happens. Take news for what it is, without spinning it into predictions about the future.
• Keep it brief. Even 3 to 5 minutes of intentionally positive content in the morning can shift how the rest of your day feels.

Connect With the Guest:

• Website / App: https://rally.news (free good news app, available on Google Play now, iOS coming soon)
• Email: sam@rally.news
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/getrallynews
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590320923963

Episode Chapters: