Speaker 1: Pushkin, did you ever hear of a happiness hack or
Speaker 1: well being strategy on this show? And think, gee, I
Speaker 1: wish I learned that one years ago. It's certainly never
Speaker 1: too late to discover the lessons that the science of
Speaker 1: happiness has to offer. I know from your emails that
Speaker 1: some of you listening right now are in your sixth, seventh,
Speaker 1: and even eighth decades, and that you still feel that
Speaker 1: you learn a ton from what we talk about on
Speaker 1: the Happiness Lab. But there's also a growing movement arguing
Speaker 1: that it's never too early to start mastering these happiness hacks.
Speaker 1: The very things that science shows can make grown adults flourish,
Speaker 1: practices like mindfulness, gratitude, or being sociable and other oriented.
Speaker 1: All of these are habits that can boost well being
Speaker 1: in younger minds too, And that's the reason that I
Speaker 1: got started teaching happiness in the first place. The students
Speaker 1: who take my Science of well Being class are incredibly smart,
Speaker 1: but also surprisingly anxious and unhappy young adult. I think
Speaker 1: my class helps, but I wish that my students could
Speaker 1: have learned all the strategies I teach long before they
Speaker 1: entered college. That's why I recently launched a free course
Speaker 1: for adolescents called The Science of Well Being for Teens,
Speaker 1: which you can find on YouTube or.
Speaker 2: On Coursera dot org.
Speaker 1: But we shouldn't just begin taking care of our emotional
Speaker 1: health in middle school either. We should be getting this
Speaker 1: knowledge to kids even earlier. So how can we get
Speaker 1: children to start investing in their happiness as soon as
Speaker 1: they start learning their abcs and how to count?
Speaker 3: Oh, I've had that the norm?
Speaker 1: Well that's a little clue because the experts that you'll
Speaker 1: hear from in this episode are the amazing people at
Speaker 1: Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that's behind Sesame Street, which has
Speaker 1: helped teach generation after generation of children literacy, numeracy, and yes,
Speaker 1: social emotional skills. Grover Big Bird and all the human
Speaker 1: residents of Sesame Street.
Speaker 3: You've forgot the Alma, But that's okay.
Speaker 1: Sorry, Grover Big Bird. Elmo and the team have a
Speaker 1: track record in getting vital educational messages out not only
Speaker 1: to young viewers, but also to the people watching alongside them,
Speaker 1: whether that's parents, caregivers, grandparents, older siblings, or teachers, and
Speaker 1: recent work has begun to show that with the right
Speaker 1: characters and stories, we can teach children's strategies for protecting
Speaker 1: their well being even in really difficult times. Take for example,
Speaker 1: some new research coming out of NYU. They tested the
Speaker 1: improvements that preschool children showed after watching Alan Simpson, which
Speaker 1: is the Arabic version of Sesame Street that Sesame Workshop
Speaker 1: created in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee and a
Speaker 1: generous grant from the MacArthur Foundation. The research showed that
Speaker 1: after watching the show, young viewers and crisis affected areas
Speaker 1: were more able to successfully identify their emotions and to
Speaker 1: apply a simple coping strategy. As a result, watching the
Speaker 1: show had taught these kids the emotional abcs they needed
Speaker 1: even in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis. So
Speaker 1: when an opportunity came along to collaborate with Sesame Workshop
Speaker 1: and their ongoing efforts to teach well being fundamentals, you
Speaker 1: better believe I jumped at it. Later in the year,
Speaker 1: will be bringing you a special season of shows featuring
Speaker 1: not only all of your furry friends from Sesame Street,
Speaker 1: but also the many experts from Sesame Workshop who craft
Speaker 1: the content that so playfully teaches viewers such important lessons.
Speaker 1: But this new series won't just be for kids or
Speaker 1: just for parents or caregivers of a kid. Whether you're
Speaker 1: aged three or one hundred and three, you'll still hear
Speaker 1: new things about the science of happiness, just with a
Speaker 1: little added Sesame Workshop furry fun. And To kick off
Speaker 1: the collaboration, I took part in a live event at
Speaker 1: the Arizona State University and Global Silicon Valley Summit, a
Speaker 1: massive conference for educators which was held in San Diego
Speaker 1: in April. At the summit, I had a chance to
Speaker 1: interview three of the key players at Sesame Workshop, their
Speaker 1: CEO Steve Youngwood, the Chief Production and Creative Development Officer,
Speaker 1: Kay Wilson Stallings, and everyone's favorite furry red monster Elmo.
Speaker 2: So welcome.
Speaker 1: Today, we're going to be talking about things that we
Speaker 1: can be doing to lay the foundation to help our
Speaker 1: young people as emotionally as mentally healthy as they possibly can.
Speaker 2: I'm Laurie Santos.
Speaker 1: I'm a professor of psychology at Yale and host of
Speaker 1: the Happiness Lab podcast. I spend a lot of my
Speaker 1: time thinking about how we can help mental health at
Speaker 1: the level of higher ed in my college students. But
Speaker 1: lately I've been feeling like my job would be a
Speaker 1: lot easier if I didn't have to wait until students
Speaker 1: got to college to start thinking about their emotional health.
Speaker 2: And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about how we can lay
Speaker 1: the foundation of children's emotional health as early as possible,
Speaker 1: and how the media can really help with that. This
Speaker 1: is going to be the first in a whole series
Speaker 1: of conversations that we're doing as part of my podcast
Speaker 1: with experts on how we can teach children using the media.
Speaker 1: And that is why I have my fantastic other panelists
Speaker 1: and guests here today. The Happiness Lab is so excited
Speaker 1: to be partnering with Sesame Workshop and to toast it off,
Speaker 1: I'm going to turn it over to Steve and Ka
Speaker 1: to introduce themselves.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 5: I am the CEO of Sesme Workshop and we're most
Speaker 5: known obviously for Sesame Street, you know, which you know
Speaker 5: has joy but also sort of like touched kids and
Speaker 5: families for over fifty plus years around the world.
Speaker 4: You know, at a bit of a higher level.
Speaker 5: As we kind of look at our vision going forward,
Speaker 5: you know, it's really to empower that next generation to
Speaker 5: build what we hope is a better place, and you know,
Speaker 5: We do it by trying to be a child's most
Speaker 5: trusted friend, trying to be a caregiver's valued partner, and
Speaker 5: you know, we try to create as a global impact
Speaker 5: organization these experiences that enrich minds and in large hearts.
Speaker 5: We focus on early childhood because we do believe that
Speaker 5: is where you can have the greatest long term impact
Speaker 5: of building a foundation. And we do it by entertaining kids,
Speaker 5: but not as an end in itself. It's really about
Speaker 5: as a means to an end of educating them and
Speaker 5: addressing the most pressing issues, which is why we're so
Speaker 5: excited to be with Laurie here. Emotional well being is
Speaker 5: clearly a pressing issue for a society for adults, for parents,
Speaker 5: for children. And it's funny, you know, Laurie is excited
Speaker 5: working with us because it's like she I was older,
Speaker 5: and what can you learn from younger?
Speaker 4: To me, it's.
Speaker 5: Almost like it's more like, Wow, if we can see
Speaker 5: where their problems are better understand them later, we can
Speaker 5: sort of backward engineer and have a more impactful program.
Speaker 5: So I'm excited for the conversation. I'm excited where this
Speaker 5: relationship will go, and I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 6: It's okay, Hi, my first time here, and I'm very
Speaker 6: excited to be here as well, and excited to share
Speaker 6: with you what we're doing at the workshop to engage
Speaker 6: in this work and to have the greatest impact possible.
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to start with the state of
Speaker 1: where we're at right now, you know, because this is
Speaker 1: a big focus on children's mental health, and so Steve,
Speaker 1: you know, talk to me about some of the statistics
Speaker 1: about where things are and how are you trying to
Speaker 1: elevate your work on mental health with kids through Sesame workshop.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So from the beginning, we've always taken a whole child's
Speaker 5: curriculum approach, and emotional well being is part of it.
Speaker 5: But clearly we're in a different moment now, which is
Speaker 5: why we're having taking a different you know, focus on it,
Speaker 5: following COVID and a lot of other.
Speaker 4: Things that are going on.
Speaker 5: And it's both the different moment in terms of how
Speaker 5: kids are sort of experiencing, but also a different moment
Speaker 5: in terms of where it is in the conversation in society.
Speaker 5: We're particularly focused because there's a lot of attention on
Speaker 5: older audiences teens and college students and it's often the
Speaker 5: younger kids, who we believe are the most important, that
Speaker 5: don't get talked about. If you look at this generation
Speaker 5: of three to five year olds, they were born into
Speaker 5: COVID and I was just with some preschoolers and researchers
Speaker 5: and he's talking about the real, tangible, obvious like implications
Speaker 5: that they grew up with anxious households. They grew up
Speaker 5: with masks and so you see this in as they
Speaker 5: can't read facial expressions as well. They grew up with
Speaker 5: a closed community and some of their sort of verbal
Speaker 5: development it is slowed down. And those are real things
Speaker 5: that we don't know how but inevitably that they will
Speaker 5: have impact. But then you look at the parents, it's
Speaker 5: different now, it's less stigmatized. They're bringing more kids to
Speaker 5: mental health facilities. Percent of them now leave. It's a
Speaker 5: major issue for early child at eighty percent of them
Speaker 5: believe that media can help. So we're at a moment
Speaker 5: where the issue is bigger, the conversation is more open,
Speaker 5: and you know, it is a time for us to
Speaker 5: put a more sort of pointed focus on it as
Speaker 5: we hope help the kids today. But we always say
Speaker 5: it's also it's the foundation. So if you can build
Speaker 5: the habits today, you can make a difference in the future.
Speaker 1: And I think this is something where Sesame really can
Speaker 1: play a very critical role because this is not the
Speaker 1: first time that Sesame Workshop has had to step in
Speaker 1: when kids were facing some kind of crisis. You know,
Speaker 1: give me a sense of the history of this and
Speaker 1: the fact that Sesame has done this a lot in
Speaker 1: the past.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, while we have the history of it
Speaker 5: was founded to get kids ready for kindergarten. You have
Speaker 5: your curriculum, and then there's the moments you need to
Speaker 5: meet and it's in our DNA. You know, there was
Speaker 5: a seminal thing that at least those from the US
Speaker 5: may remembers.
Speaker 4: In the early eighties, we had a.
Speaker 5: Character mister Hooper, played by He passed away in real life,
Speaker 5: and you know, as opposed to writing him off, having
Speaker 5: him moved to California or something, one decided that, Okay,
Speaker 5: here was a moment to teach kids and give families
Speaker 5: the tools of something that unfortunately everyone will experience, which
Speaker 5: is a loss of a loved one. So we did
Speaker 5: the research. We created an episode really focusing on the
Speaker 5: fact that Okay, it's Okay, to be sad. Death means
Speaker 5: they're not coming back, but you'll still have the memories.
Speaker 5: And we felt that was important for the kids, and
Speaker 5: we felt that was important for caregivers. You know, more
Speaker 5: recently during COVID and there's also the tragic murder of
Speaker 5: George Floyd. We again pivoted from some things and said,
Speaker 5: let's meet that moment. There are questions that families have,
Speaker 5: there are emotions that kids are going through, there are
Speaker 5: conversations that people don't not to have. We can use
Speaker 5: our relationship, we can use our various partners, and we
Speaker 5: can use our expertise to address it because it was needed.
Speaker 4: In the moment.
Speaker 5: The emotional wellbeing is an ongoing thing, but it's another
Speaker 5: moment that we think we need to meet.
Speaker 1: And so as we've talked more about the kinds of
Speaker 1: ways that we're going to meet this important moment. Okay,
Speaker 1: I know you've brought up that Sesame workshop often takes
Speaker 1: this full spectrum approach to thinking about skills building and
Speaker 1: also thinking about kids' emotional health. So what do you
Speaker 1: mean by this full spectrum approach?
Speaker 6: So when we're thinking about emotional wellbeing and children, we're
Speaker 6: talking about the way they think and feel about themselves
Speaker 6: and the experiences they have as they encounter the world
Speaker 6: around them. And we know that children need to have
Speaker 6: a healthy mental state in order to thrive, in order
Speaker 6: to develop a compassionate mindset, in order to have joyous moments,
Speaker 6: and to develop physically, emotionally, and socially. And so when
Speaker 6: we look at mental wellness and emotional wellbeing, we're looking
Speaker 6: at the complete spectrum of those everyday joyous moments, helping
Speaker 6: children to recognize and explain their emotions, and then also
Speaker 6: helping parents to recognize when there might be some really
Speaker 6: serious emotional challenges that their children are dealing with.
Speaker 1: And so I think as we think about this full
Speaker 1: spectrum approach, there's this question about, Okay, what are the
Speaker 1: specific kinds of things we can build into that, and
Speaker 1: where are the spots where media can can be especially helpful.
Speaker 1: And one of the domains I think where media can
Speaker 1: be really useful is in trying to explain very tricky concepts, right,
Speaker 1: you know, I teach a class at Yale University, like
Speaker 1: an Ivy League school about some of these scientific practices
Speaker 1: that build well being. But there's a question about how
Speaker 1: we can boil down some of these like scientific notions
Speaker 1: in a way that kids can really understand, and just
Speaker 1: to kind of give one concrete example which I think
Speaker 1: will be helpful. One of the things we've talked about
Speaker 1: in our curriculum development is ways to teach kids that
Speaker 1: emotions change, and that negative emotions are normative, right, Like,
Speaker 1: sometimes we're just going to be upset or sad or
Speaker 1: anxious or frustrated or whatever it is, and that kind
Speaker 1: of thing is normal.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 1: This is a hard concept for adults to get, right,
Speaker 1: but it can be especially hard for children. And one
Speaker 1: of the things we've talked about in our curriculum is, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's an analogy we can use that kids would get
Speaker 1: about something that's changing doesn't feel good, but you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes you have to put up with it. And we thought, oh,
Speaker 1: you know the weather, you know, sunny days.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 1: The idea is we can teach kids that, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes your emotional weathers like it is in San Diego, right,
Speaker 1: or it's you know in theory in Theory sunny all
Speaker 1: the time, right, And sometimes your emotional weather is kind
Speaker 1: of like where it is where I grew up in
Speaker 1: the Northeast, where it's snowy, your rainy, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be like that all the time. It will change,
Speaker 1: but it's normal. Like this is just the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that tends to be normal. And I love this
Speaker 1: approach because you know, it cannot be sunny every day
Speaker 1: when it comes to your emotional health, you know, even
Speaker 1: if you live on sesame streets.
Speaker 7: Oh no, sorry to interrupt, but just a sesame street.
Speaker 3: Because that's that's really am our nerves. How much this step?
Speaker 3: How must tell mister Steve, who's our friend?
Speaker 4: Elmo? Hi, this is doctor Lorie Santos.
Speaker 5: No, doctor Lory, and we were just talking about emotions.
Speaker 2: Ah, Elmo, do you know what emotions are?
Speaker 1: They're kind of like feelings And I love talking to
Speaker 1: people about their feelings.
Speaker 7: You do them so so doctor Lloy is kind of
Speaker 7: a doctor as sealings.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess so cure.
Speaker 3: Elma knows all the dead feelings.
Speaker 7: You know, sometimes almost feels happy or sometimes I almost feel.
Speaker 3: Sad, and then sometimes Elma does really did feelings.
Speaker 7: Like you know, there was this one time doctor Noy
Speaker 7: when Alma couldn't get his toy air playing the fly.
Speaker 3: You know, no matter what he did, it just kept
Speaker 3: falling on the ground and almost face felt really hot
Speaker 3: and almost.
Speaker 7: Body got me a tight a ges, you know, but
Speaker 7: you know almost Daddy helped him learn something called what
Speaker 7: was it?
Speaker 3: There?
Speaker 1: Boy?
Speaker 3: The way that Elma was feeling. You know what it is?
Speaker 2: No, what was it?
Speaker 1: Elma?
Speaker 3: It's a big name.
Speaker 7: It's called just a minute fresh?
Speaker 3: Frustrating? Is that up rod?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know it's kind of frustrating for a three
Speaker 7: year old to pronounce frustrating.
Speaker 2: I love that, Almo. I love that your dad was
Speaker 2: help helpful to teach you a label.
Speaker 1: That you could use for being frustrated, and also that
Speaker 1: he told you that it's normal sometimes to be frustrated.
Speaker 3: Emma know that he wouldn't always feud I'm red. Wait
Speaker 3: you trying.
Speaker 7: Alma tells Daddy that he nott a feelings doctor, he's
Speaker 7: gonna knock up.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna be right down. Okay, I'm gonna let
Speaker 3: you get back to him.
Speaker 4: Okay, bye bye, Alma.
Speaker 2: Bye.
Speaker 1: But like you've just seen the magic of media, write
Speaker 1: this incredibly difficult concept that negative emotions are normative, that
Speaker 1: they change over time, and we can have a character
Speaker 1: explained this big concept to and so kay, you know,
Speaker 1: talk about how Sesame has gotten good at kind of
Speaker 1: getting these concepts to make sense to little kids and
Speaker 1: some of the best practices that you've used at the
Speaker 1: workshop to do this.
Speaker 2: Well, Okay, So.
Speaker 6: We start with our in house team of experts. We
Speaker 6: have our curriculum development experts, and we have our educators,
Speaker 6: and we have our subject matter expert team, and they
Speaker 6: partner with external subject matter experts like you, Lori, and
Speaker 6: we're working on some projects with you right now. And
Speaker 6: what they do is they start off by developing the
Speaker 6: curriculum and the educational messages that we want to impart
Speaker 6: in our content, and then that material is given to
Speaker 6: our production team, the writers, who organically incorporate the educational
Speaker 6: messages and the curriculum into the stories.
Speaker 2: And then our.
Speaker 6: Research team takes those scripts and works with the production
Speaker 6: team to create these like story mattics, and they take
Speaker 6: them out to do formative testing with children who we
Speaker 6: like to refer to as our little executives because we
Speaker 6: listen to what they say. And what they're doing is
Speaker 6: they're testing these stories for appeal and for comprehension and
Speaker 6: to make sure that the impact that we're trying to
Speaker 6: achieve is going to be achieved, and then we produce
Speaker 6: the show, and sometimes it's very much an iterative process
Speaker 6: because there are times when they go out for the
Speaker 6: research and it comes back where we're not quite landing
Speaker 6: the messaging that we're trying to convey, and so we
Speaker 6: go back and we adjust the scripts and then it
Speaker 6: all comes together. And then on top of that you
Speaker 6: have the magic of our terrific messengers of the Sesame
Speaker 6: Street muppets, and they have such a great way of
Speaker 6: communicating sometimes really tough and challenging information, always with heart,
Speaker 6: always with a lot of love, and communicating it and
Speaker 6: breaking it down kids. But also I want to mention
Speaker 6: that for parents as well, because when we're making this content,
Speaker 6: we're making content not just for kids, but for also
Speaker 6: the parents in their lives, their educators, their teachers, their
Speaker 6: service providers, anyone that's within the circle of care.
Speaker 2: We're providing content for those folks as well.
Speaker 1: That's something that I really love about what the folks
Speaker 1: at Sesame Workshop are doing because the well being concepts
Speaker 1: that we need to teach children are also important for
Speaker 1: adults to learn too, and that means that when parents
Speaker 1: or caregivers sit down with a child to watch a
Speaker 1: Sesame Street episode about frustration or anger or great bursts
Speaker 1: of excitement. They'll be given the strategies in space needed
Speaker 1: to ponder their own emotions. But what are other simple
Speaker 1: strategies like this, ones that can work for anyone, no
Speaker 1: matter their age. We'll discuss some of these happiness hacks
Speaker 1: with a very special Muppet helper when the Happiness Lab
Speaker 1: returns in a moment, whether you're a kid or an adult,
Speaker 1: we can all acquire strategies to use in the moment
Speaker 1: to help us cope with what almost so eloquently described
Speaker 1: as big feelings. The science shows that when we recognize
Speaker 1: a difficult emotion rising within us, there are steps we
Speaker 1: can take to a line and regulate that emotion. And
Speaker 1: the steps you can take are remarkably simple once you
Speaker 1: learn them. So, since I had Sesame workshops Steve Youngwood
Speaker 1: and Kay Wilson Stallings, and a big audience at the
Speaker 1: ASUGSV Summit, I decided to embark on a live demonstration
Speaker 1: of some of my favorite strategies and to engage with
Speaker 1: some of these mindfulness activities. I think it would be
Speaker 1: fun if we all did it.
Speaker 2: Together. But it would also be great if I could.
Speaker 1: Find a volunteer somewhere.
Speaker 2: Let me see.
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna pick Almo.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, Almo. Do you want to practice a
Speaker 2: mindfulness activity with me?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 7: Emma would enough to practice a month onness activity?
Speaker 3: What is a month on us activity?
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a hard concept.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of thing that we can do
Speaker 1: when we're having these big feelings, like when we're feeling
Speaker 1: frustrated and we want to feel a little bit better.
Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
Speaker 7: That kind of sounds like another thing that almost Daddy
Speaker 7: tied them to do when he's having a big thing.
Speaker 3: It's kind jelly breathing belly and I want.
Speaker 7: To show everybody, but everybody's got to do it together. Okay, okay,
Speaker 7: So first we put our hands on our belly like this,
Speaker 7: everybody put your hand on your belly.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 7: Now let's our take a slow breath in through your
Speaker 7: mouth and now slowly breathe out through your mouth. And
Speaker 7: that's billy breathing.
Speaker 1: That's an excellent Elmo, And that is a wonderful mindfulness
Speaker 1: activity because it's a way that we can whatever we're feeling,
Speaker 1: we can kind of get back in our bodies and
Speaker 1: feel a little bit better.
Speaker 2: But do you want to do a couple more mindfulness activities?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, what is some more God glory?
Speaker 4: Let's hear okay.
Speaker 1: So one of my favorites is a behavior we can use,
Speaker 1: which is that we can be a little bit more
Speaker 1: other oriented when we're not feeling good. This is ways
Speaker 1: that we do nice things for other people that actually
Speaker 1: make us feel better.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I almost done that before.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 7: There's there was a time when Almill helps Joey how
Speaker 7: to learn how to ride a scooter orl at you know.
Speaker 7: Sometimes Elma helps Alan at Hooper's store, and helping makes
Speaker 7: almost feel really good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so that's one that we can use.
Speaker 1: But there's another one that I think you'll like, Elmo,
Speaker 1: which is that we can change our mindset. We can
Speaker 1: express and experience gratitude. So this is just kind of
Speaker 1: when we notice things that we're thankful for. And this
Speaker 1: is something I do so at night, right before I
Speaker 1: go to bed, I think about a few things that
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for, and sometimes I even write it down.
Speaker 1: And studies show that this actually makes us feel better.
Speaker 1: It can make our bodies and our minds feel good.
Speaker 7: Really well, almost grateful for a lot of things. Alma's
Speaker 7: mommy and daddy, Almos friends, pizza. But you know, I'm
Speaker 7: almost gonna ask his mommy to help him write all
Speaker 7: that stuff down at bedtime.
Speaker 1: I love that it's gonna make you feel so much better.
Speaker 1: And if we have time for one more mindfulness activity,
Speaker 1: I'm going to share one that I think you'll like
Speaker 1: because I think it's one that you happen to do
Speaker 1: a little bit already.
Speaker 3: Oh does it have to do a thing?
Speaker 1: I'm sure No, it's not that. It is that if
Speaker 1: you want to feel better, you can take time to
Speaker 1: be with pets. And I know that Almo recently adopted
Speaker 1: a dog, right, And so that's a wonderful way to
Speaker 1: do something nice for another creature and to feel good yourself.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, that's a great idea.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm gonna love this puppy tanger because Tango makes
Speaker 7: everybody that she needs really happy. I's gonna go cat
Speaker 7: Tango that she's basically a superhero. Oh okay, thank you,
Speaker 7: Doctor Lory, Thanks everybody you later, I.
Speaker 4: Am Yoma Iolmo.
Speaker 1: But again here we are right, Like, these are quick
Speaker 1: skill sets that any of us kids parents can engage
Speaker 1: in whenever we're feeling not so good right, deep belly
Speaker 1: breath behaviors that make us happier than we expect, doing
Speaker 1: nice things for others, and these long term changes to
Speaker 1: our mindsets, things like gratitude and so on. And so
Speaker 1: I love that we can teach kids these things and
Speaker 1: have wonderful models for these activities. But another reason that
Speaker 1: I love Sesame's approach, which we kind of alluded to before,
Speaker 1: is that it's not just about teaching kids these activities.
Speaker 1: It's making these skills available to caregivers too, And so
Speaker 1: Steve talk a little bit about how we can use
Speaker 1: media to reach both of these audiences and the power
Speaker 1: that kind of engaging with caretakers can have when it
Speaker 1: comes to kids' emotional health.
Speaker 5: So, anyone who knows the workshop, it was founded on
Speaker 5: that simple principle that it wasn't about if kids were
Speaker 5: learning from media, it was about what. And at the time,
Speaker 5: in nineteen sixty nine, in the wasteland of children's TV,
Speaker 5: they were learning the words to beer commercials. So is
Speaker 5: that simple thing if you could take that same medium
Speaker 5: but pivot to the abcs and then go from their social,
Speaker 5: emotional and societal issues. You could actually really make a difference.
Speaker 5: And then history has shown that that was true. There
Speaker 5: have been seminal studies that say people who grew up
Speaker 5: on Sesame Street and had higher GPAs and even earned
Speaker 5: more money. Now, the media landscape today is obviously very different,
Speaker 5: and it allows one actually different to us in a
Speaker 5: challenging way because it's more fragmented, but in a good way,
Speaker 5: and that they're more places to meet audiences and they're
Speaker 5: more types of content that you can deliver to them.
Speaker 5: When we started, it was also about kids and parents together.
Speaker 5: There's one screen in the house, but today it's a
Speaker 5: multi screen and it allows us to sometimes reach kids
Speaker 5: and parents together, sometimes kids alone, but also sometimes with partners.
Speaker 4: Like Lori, to actually meet parents and caregivers.
Speaker 5: And what's amazing is that the hypothesis that the power
Speaker 5: that media can have to both teach but also to
Speaker 5: move hearts and minds is still true. We have a
Speaker 5: big project targeting the Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq,
Speaker 5: and Syria, and we just came back to the one
Speaker 5: hundred million dollar grant film Tropically funded to bring early
Speaker 5: childhood education there partnering with the IRC because we are
Speaker 5: media makers and they are a direct service organization, and
Speaker 5: we just got two seminal studies back that proved the hypothesis.
Speaker 5: But then all start going to help us in some
Speaker 5: of the work. Here one of us for a mass
Speaker 5: TV show where we focus on a curriculum given the
Speaker 5: trauma that they were going through on we call it
Speaker 5: the emotional ABCS and looking in Jordan, which is where
Speaker 5: we did the study, it came back that the children
Speaker 5: who watched the show were able to more identify their emotions,
Speaker 5: which as Laurie says, is sort of the top of
Speaker 5: the funnel, and then also could adopt certain coping mechanisms
Speaker 5: to deal with them, which is so important because if
Speaker 5: you can't then it becomes a blocker to learning and
Speaker 5: it impacts you long term life. On the other side,
Speaker 5: using the new technologies as media changes, we you know
Speaker 5: as direct services, was a big part of the program.
Speaker 5: But COVID came and we pivoted to remote learning where
Speaker 5: we took our content, we took teachers when we use WhatsApp,
Speaker 5: and we just completed study in Lebanon that eleven weeks
Speaker 5: of the remote learning using our media and teachers and
Speaker 5: technology was equal to one year for the Serian refugee
Speaker 5: children that went through the program.
Speaker 4: You know, so all of this is and that is
Speaker 4: the use of media. That is the use of media
Speaker 4: and the remote learning.
Speaker 5: One also engage the parents because it had the moments
Speaker 5: with the teachers, but then it had the extension that
Speaker 5: the parents were supposed to do and they came back
Speaker 5: as a community. So it was the whole sort of
Speaker 5: picture of parents and students and teachers and media having
Speaker 5: a long term impact in the situation that there was
Speaker 5: no other option.
Speaker 4: So you know, as we look forward, that is the
Speaker 4: hope here. That is the hope.
Speaker 5: In general, we do it by our own outlets, but
Speaker 5: we're partnering with people and you know, it's a hypothesis
Speaker 5: that we've tested and we've proven and it's very, very powerful,
Speaker 5: and so we know.
Speaker 1: How important it is to kind of have this approach
Speaker 1: where we're including caregivers, we're including teachers, we're including everyone
Speaker 1: in the child's culture and orbit.
Speaker 2: But it's still hard to do that and to make
Speaker 2: media that's fun and enjoyable.
Speaker 1: And so KAY talk a little bit about some best
Speaker 1: practices that you use to really engage caregivers given the
Speaker 1: content that you're developing.
Speaker 6: So we know that the educational messages come through even
Speaker 6: stronger when children are engaged with our content with the
Speaker 6: caring adult, because then the learning can continue after the
Speaker 6: television show goes off. And so we're always looking for
Speaker 6: ways to bring adults into the show. And so I
Speaker 6: think everyone that's familiar with Sesame Street knows how funny
Speaker 6: it is. And there's often times humor that we bring
Speaker 6: into the show that's a little subtle, a little cheeky,
Speaker 6: that's just something that's a nod to the parents that
Speaker 6: we know are watching. We also use lots of great music,
Speaker 6: and we partner with an amazing array of singer and
Speaker 6: songwriters and provide all genres of musical tastes, so a
Speaker 6: little bit of something for everyone, from hip hop to
Speaker 6: country to you know, reggae.
Speaker 2: And then what we also like to.
Speaker 6: Do is we look and produce a lot of parodies
Speaker 6: and it's like things that again it's something that adults recognize,
Speaker 6: so it's based on you know, TV shows or pop
Speaker 6: culture and that kind of thing. And then you know,
Speaker 6: it's just always making sure that also we have opportunities
Speaker 6: for our human adult characters as well as our adult
Speaker 6: muppet characters to be role models as well. Soo and
Speaker 6: his Friends are great role models for our children, but
Speaker 6: to have the adults on the show also be role
Speaker 6: models and provide the way to talk to their children,
Speaker 6: to wait, to guide the answers, or guide play activities,
Speaker 6: and so forth, so that it can be also a
Speaker 6: learning opportunity for the adults as well.
Speaker 1: And just in the spirit of having a learning opportunity
Speaker 1: for the adults, I imagine there's some parents in the
Speaker 1: room right now, and so it might be helpful to
Speaker 1: give parents some specific skill sets that they can use.
Speaker 1: And here, since it's just parents, we won't involve Alma.
Speaker 1: We'll just sort of try it ourselves. And so I'll
Speaker 1: leave you with one last sort of strategy that we
Speaker 1: can all use, which is a strategy to engage our
Speaker 1: self compassion. One of the tough things about being an
Speaker 1: adult and a parent is that we often talk to
Speaker 1: ourselves in incredibly mean ways. You know, if hr could
Speaker 1: hear the voices that we used in our head, we
Speaker 1: would all get fired for talking badly to ourselves, right,
Speaker 1: But there are strategies that we can use to counteract that,
Speaker 1: and one of my favorite ones is when you hear
Speaker 1: yourself on that ruminative loop where you're saying, oh, I suck,
Speaker 1: I didn't do that.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not doing enough.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: That's when you take a moment to label that thought.
Speaker 2: You give it a name.
Speaker 1: My Yale students like to use Karen because I think
Speaker 1: Karen is like a meme, people like, oh, yeah, Karen, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're just saying I'm bad today.
Speaker 2: I hear you, Karen, thank you for trying to help, right.
Speaker 1: But I think in the spirit of Systemy workshop, we
Speaker 1: can say that's my Oscar voice, like I'm just being
Speaker 1: a grouch to myself today. And so that's just a
Speaker 1: hack that you can all use when you notice that
Speaker 1: rum and into voice, stop it, thank it, you know,
Speaker 1: allow for thank you negative voice, Thank you Oscar for
Speaker 1: trying to help me. But I'm going to stop that
Speaker 1: train of thought and move on to something else. So
Speaker 1: that's another quick hack that parents can use. And so
Speaker 1: so so far today we've talked about ways that we
Speaker 1: can teach really difficult concepts. We can show and model
Speaker 1: skills and practices that kids can engage in when they're
Speaker 1: not feeling good. We can also show and model practices
Speaker 1: that maybe parents can engage in when they're not talking
Speaker 1: to themselves and feeling so good.
Speaker 2: You know, With all these.
Speaker 1: Things together, my last question for both of you is that,
Speaker 1: you know, are you hopeful that we can address this crisis?
Speaker 1: You know is sit on the college side, you know,
Speaker 1: I see the emotional struggles that students come in. I
Speaker 1: see the depression and anxiety. Do we really think we
Speaker 1: can use media to nip that in the bud? Can
Speaker 1: you get me away from my lectures so I can
Speaker 1: go back to doing my research and I don't have
Speaker 1: to keep teaching these classes on emotional health to college students.
Speaker 2: Can we kind of make it there early enough for kids? Yes,
Speaker 2: I think we can.
Speaker 6: You know, as Stevid said, we've you know, handled tough
Speaker 6: topics in the past, and I think that you know,
Speaker 6: with the content that we're going to be creating that's
Speaker 6: engaging and that's for both parents and caregivers and children
Speaker 6: and our research based you know, resources that we'll be providing,
Speaker 6: I think that we will be able to help children
Speaker 6: develop the tools that they need so that they can have,
Speaker 6: you know, a positive and healthy mindset for now and
Speaker 6: in the future.
Speaker 4: Steve.
Speaker 5: I'm hopeful as well, or I wouldn't be here for
Speaker 5: two reasons. One is I think that we have the
Speaker 5: proven techniques, and I think we have a lot of
Speaker 5: partners because we're as good as our partners in terms
Speaker 5: of if we're going to reach the audience is at
Speaker 5: scale that we need to. But the other thing is
Speaker 5: from a societal perspective, it seems like people are acknowledging
Speaker 5: it as they always say, that's acknowledging the problem is
Speaker 5: that the gatekeeper sort of in terms of addressing the problem.
Speaker 5: And as I joke to Lori but not completely joke,
Speaker 5: that you know, success will be measured in fifteen years
Speaker 5: when her class is six hundred is now a seminar
Speaker 5: of ten people, and they're historically looking at d see
Speaker 5: what it used to be like. So it's a history
Speaker 5: class as opposed to a moment in time class.
Speaker 1: And so this is one of the reasons that I'm
Speaker 1: excited not just about this conversation but about future conversations.
Speaker 1: If your interest was piqued by this, I encourage you
Speaker 1: to pay attention to the Happiness Lab podcast feed because
Speaker 1: we're going to be continuing to have lots of conversations
Speaker 1: with the folks at Sesame Workshop about best practices.
Speaker 2: That we can use to engage with this. But with that,
Speaker 2: I want to thank all of you for listening and
Speaker 2: to think my fantastic panel.
Speaker 1: Steve Youngwood, CEO of Sesame Workshop, Kay Wilson Stallings, Chief
Speaker 1: Production and Creative Development Officer, and there's probably somebody else I'm.
Speaker 2: Forgetting to thank.
Speaker 3: Yes, Elma, you forgot to thank you, Alma, But that's okay,
Speaker 3: you know, dark a night.
Speaker 7: Oh, I had a really good time learning all these
Speaker 7: different strategies.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much, Elmo. This has been such
Speaker 1: a fun conversation and I hope we can do it
Speaker 1: again sometime soon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm much here.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for Elmo. Everyone, gog you, hie everybody.
Speaker 3: Bye.
Speaker 1: Everyone. You might be surprised to hear that I kind
Speaker 1: of share Steve's hope that I can retire from teaching
Speaker 1: my college happiness class. My dream is that someday we
Speaker 1: won't need people like me teaching well being strategies to
Speaker 1: young adults, because all those emotional skills will be as
Speaker 1: much a part of early educational development as learning the
Speaker 1: ABC's or how to ride a bike. But We've got
Speaker 1: a lot of work still to be done to get
Speaker 1: to that point, and I hope that the Happiness Labs
Speaker 1: up in collaboration with the Sesame Street Folks, will be
Speaker 1: an important first step in that direction, showing that it's
Speaker 1: never too late and also never too early to pay
Speaker 1: attention to what science has to say about happiness. So
Speaker 1: keep an ear out for that very special season coming
Speaker 1: this fall. And just a reminder that Sesame Workshop is
Speaker 1: a nonprofit organization with a mission to help kids grow smarter, stronger,
Speaker 1: and kinder. The work they do is funded by donations
Speaker 1: big and small, so if you really want to become
Speaker 1: a part of their important mission to improve children's emotional wellbeing,
Speaker 1: then be sure to visit sesameworkshop dot org, forward slash
Speaker 1: support us