Staying Informed Without Burning Out: Media Literacy and Mental Health with Ashlyn Raine

How do we stay informed without letting the news consume our attention, our trust, and our emotional bandwidth?  Journalist and media-literacy educator Ashlyn Raine joins Nathan to explore how the information ecosystem has changed—and what it takes to navigate it with more care. Ashlyn is the creator and host of Ask Ashlyn, a text-based news service designed for people who want to understand national news without feeling overwhelmed. Her concise updates pair reporting with mindfulness prompts, inviting readers to check in with themselves and return later if they do not have the capacity to engage. The service grew out of a role she already played for friends: the person they texted when they had questions about the news. The conversation moves beyond spotting fake news. Ashlyn explains how headlines and loaded language can frame a story before we read it, why missing context is not automatically evidence of a conspiracy, and how institutional incentives shape coverage. She and Nathan also discuss the rise of creator journalism, the tension between authentic personality and journalistic ethics, and the way engagement-driven platforms can reward outrage or spectacle over careful reporting. Finally, Ashlyn connects media literacy with digital well-being. A feed can move from war and politics to entertainment, scarcity, lifestyle comparison, and advertising in seconds. Learning to evaluate information matters, but so does deciding when to stop consuming it. Not every update is urgent, and sharing something before checking it can make an incomplete or inaccurate claim part of someone else’s information diet. Website: https://askashlyn.co/ Instagram:   / ask.ashlyn   TikTok:   / ask_ashlyn   YouTube:    / @askashlyn   LinkedIn:   / ashlyn-lipori-russie   Text-news subscription mentioned in the interview: https://joinsubtext.com/askashlyn About the Guest Ashlyn Raine is the Creator and Host of Ask Ashlyn, a text-based news service that helps people stay informed about national news without feeling overwhelmed. Her platform focuses on media literacy, digital well-being, and offering a mindful, grounded approach to staying informed in the face of bad news.