That substance may become deadlier the longer it’s in the human body.
From Dr. Naomi Wolf at naomiwolf.substack.com:
I don’t often lose my composure when I am conducting an interview. I was given very thorough media training at the start of my career — indeed, when I was just 26 — by a woman who was a legend in the world of media training – the late Barbara Browning.
In a book-lined apartment overlooking Central Park, and adorned only in calming creams and whites, long before that was a fashion, this elegant lady, who trained many of the serious nonfiction authors at that time, taught me a technique I have used ever since.
It is called “hit, bridge, sparkle”; it is a kind of verbal judo in which you use the force of an attack to stay centered. The technique — in which you “hit” the question or the attack by acknowledging it, “bridge” to what you really want to say, and “sparkle” in your preferred field of discourse, sharing the facts you wish to present to the audience — allows you to face up to and absorb any difficult question, confront any bully, or bear up serenely under any confrontation, without losing your balance or calm demeanor.
People often ask me how I manage to deal with all of the attacks I face, and that is one technique. I am forever grateful to Ms Browning, as I have faced many bullies, as well as many confrontations and difficult subjects, on camera. (Another source of my composure under attack is my certainty that I’ll be dead someday and will then have to account for my life choices, as will my attackers for theirs, but that is a subject for another essay).