What happens when the thing you reach for to soothe yourself starts quietly stealing your time, your attention, and your creative life force?

In “Dopamine Reset”, this week’s episode of The Spark File Podcast, Susan shares her deeply personal experience of getting hooked on TikTok during a season of illness and exhaustion — and what helped her find her way back. Using insights from Dr. Anna Lembke’s book, Dopamine Nation, Susan and Laura explore the science of dopamine, the sneaky design of our frictionless modern world, and the very real cost of compulsive overconsumption.

They dig into how addiction can show up in surprising forms, why so many of us feel trapped in cycles of craving and numbing, and what a dopamine reset can offer us in return: more presence, more freedom, and more room for the creative work and real life that matter most.

If you’ve ever looked up from your phone and thought, Wait… where did my time go? — this one’s for you.