In 2015, writer and Outside magazine correspondent Eva Holland was forced to confront the question: what happens when the thing you fear the most comes true? The daughter of a mother who lost her own parents young, Holland long feared the same would happen to her. Then, on a camping trip in northwestern British Columbia, she got the news: her mother had suffered a stroke.
In Nerve: A Personal Journey Through the Science of Fear, Holland examines the extent to which fear inhibits us. What happens in the body when we go into a panic attack? How do we overcome our deepest fears? What would it be like to live without any fear at all? Conversely, what is the case for keeping fear around?
“Fear is our most important survival tool, I think … without it, we have no drive to survive; we have no guardrails on our lives.” – Eva Holland
Eva Holland is a Whitehorse, Yukon-based writer and editor. Her work has appeared in Wired, Grantland, The Walrus, and Canadian Geographic, among other places.

Photo provided by Eva Holland (photo credit: GBP Creative).