An ice-cream truck rolls past as we hit record—an oddly perfect cue for where this conversation goes: modern life’s noise versus the quiet wisdom of biology.

Today, we welcome back Zaid K. Dahhaj to answer viewer questions about the sun. We explore how light, time, and place shape our minds and bodies.

In standard Feelings with Strangers fashion, we braid science, lived experience, and spirit—from circadian clocks and biophotonics to the constriction of our natural processes by cities and the sanity that returns when we sync with sun and darkness. Zaid makes a clear, compassionate case for alignment over avoidance: why full-spectrum sunlight (used wisely) behaves differently than isolated UV; when sunglasses can be useful and when they short-circuit the body’s own photoprotection; why most sunscreen narratives miss circadian context; and how melatonin, vitamin D, and peripheral clocks knit together repair, mood, and resilience. We even name the captivity we’ve normalised—what Zaid calls the zoo-mind of indoor life—and map a path back to coherence.

In this episode, we cover:

- Sunglasses, glare, & melanin: safety use-cases vs. circadian tradeoffs

- Sunscreen & photoaging: what changes when you consider full spectrum light, not just UV in isolation

- City stress & “zoo-cosis”: why indoor, blue-heavy environments fray our nervous systems

- Burns, hormesis, & “progressive overload” with sunlight: building tolerance like training Vitamin D (without pills)

Seasonal strategy, cold exposure, and light from within Spiritual through-line: “as above, so below”—how alignment in light/dark supports alignment in life.

Feelings with Strangers

Socials

https://www.instagram.com/feelings.with.strangers/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@FeelingswithStrangers/videos

Zaid Dahhaj

Socials

https://www.instagram.com/zaidkdahhaj/  

Podcast

The 2am Podcast https://www.instagram.com/the2ampodcast/  

YouTube

The 2am Podcast YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@the2ampodcast   

Circadian Course

https://themetawarrior.mykajabi.com/courses  

Substack

https://zaidkdahhaj.substack.com/   Work with Zaid https://www.zaidkdahhaj.com/coaching