Episode 9, Recorded on July 12, 2023; In this conversation, Elana shares a childhood trauma that sent her to a psychoanalyst as a young girl. We discuss how early experiences impact emotional well-being and how shared experiences can inspire empathy toward others. We commiserate on how we both enjoy talking to and being around people and discuss how listening to others helps with real human connection. Elana shares a few stories of spontaneous interactions she had that made her think about how we perceive others in the world and how we often make assumptions that aren’t always correct (of course she wrote a poem about it that she promised to recite in a future episode). Elana describes her continual encouragement- i.e. insistence- that people tell their stories and refuses to accept it when they say they don’t have a story, because everyone has a story. One question she asks that apparently always gets people to open up is, ‘If you were king of the world what would you do?’ 

Larry’s song at the end, “Circles Big and Small”, seemed like the perfect fit for this episode. 

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