We’ve all been learning some things about ourselves in lockdown.

“There’s this other layer from my experience where there was this emotional exhaustion of video calls. I’ve never wanted to miss catching up with people, I’ve always loved it. And so the experience of having catch-ups with people and feeling really emotionally exhausted at the end of that was new. Potentially it’s the experience of an introvert more consistently! So feeling drained by catching up with people was surprising and in some ways disappointing and confusing.”

Over the last decade or two there’s been a “quiet revolution” going on, in the words of Susan Cain, introvert and deliverer of one of the most watched TED talks of all time, “The power of introverts”. Where there was once a bias in favour of extroversion - in social settings, and in the workplace - now the pendulum seems to have swung the other way, and introversion seems to get a lot of the attention.

In this episode, Simon and Natasha wander into the minefield that is personality typing, reveal their own complicated relationship with the introversion/extroversion distinction (and what it “actually” means), and ask people how their experience of self-isolation has been during Covid. And Robyn Wrigley-Carr, a lecturer in theology and spirituality, takes us back 500 years to unpack the inner life - and outward impact - of Teresa of Avila. She urges us all - introvert and extrovert alike - to be attentive to our own lives.

“I think diversity and uniqueness of response is huge here, because there's no one way to live an effective life, and each of us works out how to do it from being in the nitty gritty of life and through engaging, and suffering, and hard stuff.”

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In this episode:

How to Care for Your Introvert (language warning)

The Power of Introverts