Starcast Join the waitlist
The Dr. Leaf Show

The Dr. Leaf Show

Is Your Apple Watch Making You Anxious? A Neuroscientist (and Her Daughter) Explain

Aug 26, 2026 · 1h 8m

Coming soon to iPhone. Already have it? “Listen in Starcast” takes you straight there.

On this episode

About this episode

Is your Apple Watch making you anxious? Cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Caroline Leaf is joined by special guest Dominique Leaf, her daughter and the show's producer, to ask whether we are over-tracking and over-optimizing our health to the point where health anxiety is rising.Dominique wore an Apple Watch for years and took it off. She talks openly about how the numbers fed her eating disorder struggles, and how tracking pulled her away from how she actually felt in her body. Dr. Leaf explains what happens in the mind and brain when a number on a screen hijacks your nervous state, and why the fix is never the device. One phrase runs through the whole conversation: observe, do not merge. What…