WEBVTT - Coming Soon: Stories about Heartbreak, Empathy, Stress, and Much More!

0:00:14.916 --> 0:00:25.356
<v Speaker 1>Pushkin. Hey, it's Maya. We're back Monday, February twentieth with

0:00:25.436 --> 0:00:28.156
<v Speaker 1>a brand new season of A Slight Change of Plans.

0:00:29.716 --> 0:00:32.636
<v Speaker 1>This season will hear personal stories of change, as well

0:00:32.636 --> 0:00:36.076
<v Speaker 1>as conversations with scientific experts who teach us how we

0:00:36.076 --> 0:00:39.276
<v Speaker 1>can live happier and healthier lives. We kick off the

0:00:39.316 --> 0:00:43.596
<v Speaker 1>season with social scientists from Dupe Akinola, who challenges us

0:00:43.636 --> 0:00:46.316
<v Speaker 1>to reframe our stress as something that can actually be

0:00:46.356 --> 0:00:49.916
<v Speaker 1>good for us. Our dominant model and narrative is that

0:00:49.956 --> 0:00:54.236
<v Speaker 1>we should deny, reduce, and avoid stress, and that is

0:00:54.356 --> 0:00:58.476
<v Speaker 1>not always the case. Every single person I know can

0:00:58.556 --> 0:01:02.476
<v Speaker 1>tell of the time where their stress helps him. I

0:01:02.596 --> 0:01:06.676
<v Speaker 1>also talk with comedian Hussan Minhaj, who reveals that having

0:01:06.716 --> 0:01:09.036
<v Speaker 1>a job that is so dependent on whether or not

0:01:09.356 --> 0:01:12.796
<v Speaker 1>people like him is making him reconsider his future in comedy.

0:01:13.116 --> 0:01:16.116
<v Speaker 1>Do you like me? How many millions of people like me?

0:01:16.156 --> 0:01:20.076
<v Speaker 1>So I can hopefully continue doing this? Man, I don't

0:01:20.116 --> 0:01:24.436
<v Speaker 1>want to participate? And science journalists Florence Williams describes how

0:01:24.436 --> 0:01:27.036
<v Speaker 1>when her twenty five year marriage came to a sudden end,

0:01:27.516 --> 0:01:29.956
<v Speaker 1>she was inspired to go on a quest to understand

0:01:29.996 --> 0:01:33.036
<v Speaker 1>why heartbreak can have such a devastating impact on our

0:01:33.036 --> 0:01:36.716
<v Speaker 1>minds and bodies when the person you consider sort of

0:01:36.756 --> 0:01:41.196
<v Speaker 1>your safety net, when they're suddenly gone. It's so disorienting

0:01:41.476 --> 0:01:43.916
<v Speaker 1>in a way that's kind of like a deep freakout,

0:01:44.116 --> 0:01:46.596
<v Speaker 1>and you feel it emotionally. And it turns out our

0:01:46.636 --> 0:01:49.996
<v Speaker 1>immune systems and our bodies, our nervous systems are really

0:01:49.996 --> 0:01:54.316
<v Speaker 1>paying very close attention to that sense of freakout. We'll

0:01:54.356 --> 0:01:56.996
<v Speaker 1>hear from an expert on friendship who teaches us to

0:01:57.076 --> 0:01:59.636
<v Speaker 1>think differently about the role of friends play in our lives,

0:02:00.236 --> 0:02:03.156
<v Speaker 1>and from a psychologist who tells us how empathy is

0:02:03.196 --> 0:02:05.836
<v Speaker 1>actually a skill we can build with effort. We used

0:02:05.876 --> 0:02:08.756
<v Speaker 1>to think of our personalities as totally fixed, but it

0:02:08.836 --> 0:02:11.516
<v Speaker 1>turned out that people do change. In fact, the only

0:02:11.556 --> 0:02:16.516
<v Speaker 1>thing that you can't do is stop changing. I can't

0:02:16.516 --> 0:02:20.276
<v Speaker 1>wait for you to hear these powerful conversations. In the meantime,

0:02:20.476 --> 0:02:23.196
<v Speaker 1>you can get a backstage past the show on Instagram

0:02:23.236 --> 0:02:27.196
<v Speaker 1>at doctor Maya Schunker. See you next week.