Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / Boost your mood in 15 minutes

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Boost your mood in 15 minutes · Silver FM 100.6

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This message comes from the Center for U.S. Voters Abroad Foundation.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: All U.S. citizens abroad may request an absentee ballot to
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  Speaker 1: vote in the 2026 election. Visit registerabroad.com to get started.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Hey everybody, it's Marielle. The other day I woke up
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: feeling sad, and I wasn't really sure why. It just
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: got worse as the day went on. I started wondering
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: if What is bothering me? Is it a dream I had?
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Am I stressed about something? Some unresolved trauma I should
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: dig up? Then around 2.30 in the afternoon, I finally
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: had lunch. I bit into a juicy salmon burger with
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: pickles and aioli on top and realized, oh.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I was just hungry.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, bad moods, sometimes they have a big underlying emotional reason.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: And sometimes they're a signal that we need to meet
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: one of our basic bodily needs, like eating or drinking
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: water or talking to another human. Now, let me be clear.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: It's okay to be in a bad mood. As we
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: know from Inside Out, all of our emotions, sadness included,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: serve a purpose. But let's say you want to pivot.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of things you can do. On
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  Speaker 2: this episode of Life Kit, with help from NPR's Science Desk,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: we are going to hand you a menu of research-backed
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: mood boosters. These are actions you can take when you've
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  Speaker 2: got less than 15 minutes to spend and you want
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  Speaker 2: to escape that gloomy cloud hanging over you. Just a
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: note here, none of these actions on their own can
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  Speaker 2: treat serious mental health conditions, but they can supplement your
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  Speaker 2: pre-existing mental health routine and they can help you shake
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: off that bad vibe, at least in the moment.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Support for this podcast and the following message come from Rula.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: With Rula, finding a therapist and getting the help you
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: need is easier than talking yourself out of it because
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Rula offers personalized cost estimates and has no hidden fees,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: with sessions costing an average of $ 15 and over 120
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: insurance plans accepted nationwide. If you're ready to stop talking
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: yourself out of finding care and making progress, head to Rula.com.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: That's R-U-L-A dot com and take the first step.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: As the political landscape shifts beneath our feet, we're all
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: vulnerable to a well-funded distraction economy determined to take our
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: eye off the ball.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: Our weekly politics series, If You Can Keep It, is
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  Speaker 4: here to help, where our focus is not the horse race,
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  Speaker 4: but the state.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: We tackle the big political stories of the day and
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: why they matter for our democracy.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Join me, Todd Zwilich.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: And me, Jen White, on the 1A Podcast. from WAMU
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: and NPR.
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: Hey, you know that nagging voice in your head, the
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: one telling you to put the phone down and stop
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: doom scrolling?
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Well, it's time.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Look up.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: Take a daily curiosity break with Shortwave, NPR's science podcast.
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: Let your mind wander to the edges of outer space
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: or wonder about what's lurking in the depths of the
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: seafloor all in under 15 minutes. Shortwave, your daily mental reset.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: This week on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, we talk
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: with our panel Mo Rocca, Shane Torres, and Annie Rawrida
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: about the latest trend in dating, smelling bad on purpose.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: This pheromone maxing is just not bathing.
• 3:16
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: So this is like when Uber came out and they're like,
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: it's not.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Taxi, it's ride share.
• 3:21
  Speaker 6: Don't miss our full conversation and the rest of our games.
• 3:23
  Speaker 6: Listen to the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me podcast in
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Our first mood booster is a cool one, a really
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: cool one. You ever heard of a polar bear plunge?
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: That's when a bunch of people get together, sometimes as
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  Speaker 2: a New Year's Day tradition, and jump into the freezing ocean.
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  Speaker 7: Ready, guys?
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  Speaker 3: We're going to walk in.
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  Speaker 2: Walk in with intention. Well, people are now doing this
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  Speaker 2: all year round. It's called cold plunging.
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  Speaker 8: Ready?
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  Speaker 7: Go.
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  Speaker 3: One, two, three.
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  Speaker 2: And cold plunging is exactly what it sounds like. You
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  Speaker 2: submerge yourself in cold water.
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  Speaker 4: Usually in the studies, we're talking about temperatures lower than
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  Speaker 4: 60 degrees. But there's no one definition. People are practicing
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  Speaker 4: it in different ways, depending on what they.
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  Speaker 1: Have access to.
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  Speaker 2: That's NPR health and science correspondent Will Stone. He lives
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  Speaker 2: in Seattle and cold plunges a few times a week.
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  Speaker 1: Let's see if I can do it.
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  Speaker 2: You're hearing him on an outing with a group called
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  Speaker 2: the Puget Sound Plungers. And some of their members told
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  Speaker 2: him that a cold plunge can feel transformative.
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  Speaker 7: There's this point where you hit a level where it's
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  Speaker 7: not cold anymore and this, like, calm washes over you.
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  Speaker 3: It's pretty cool.
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  Speaker 2: Any anxiety, anything I'm struggling with, it's just gone.
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  Speaker 8: And when I come out of the water.
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  Speaker 2: I've left it in the water.
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  Speaker 9: Okay, Will.
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  Speaker 2: What do we know, broadly speaking, about the benefits of
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  Speaker 2: cold plunging? You've reported a bit on what happens in
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  Speaker 2: those first moments when you get into cold water.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right. There is a first kind of physiological
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  Speaker 4: reaction you have, which is called the cold shock response.
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  Speaker 4: This is when your body basically freaks out. You know,
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  Speaker 4: your heart rate jumps, your blood pressure spikes. It activates
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  Speaker 4: your fight or flight response. This is called the sympathetic
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  Speaker 4: arm of your nervous system. You'll have a release of
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  Speaker 4: like stress hormones, like adrenaline. And scientists do believe that,
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  Speaker 4: you know, some of the benefits that we see specifically
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  Speaker 4: around mental health has to do with that first intense,
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  Speaker 4: this cold shock response that you have to kind of
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  Speaker 4: deal with and encounter when you first get in.
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  Speaker 2: OK, well, let's talk more about the mental health benefits.
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  Speaker 2: What is the evidence that you've seen?
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  Speaker 4: So I would say the evidence is still pretty thin,
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  Speaker 4: but I do see it as one of the most
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  Speaker 4: promising areas of research. There's one small study from the
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  Speaker 4: UK that shows even a quick dip in the cold
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  Speaker 4: water can improve your mood. And this one study on
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  Speaker 4: mood found it didn't really matter if it was 5
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  Speaker 4: or 10 or 20 minutes in the water. It all
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  Speaker 4: seemed to help about have the same effect.
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  Speaker 2: All right, so that's our first mood booster. Try a
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  Speaker 2: cold plunge. If it's your first time, Will says find
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  Speaker 2: a body of water somewhere in the 50 to 60
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  Speaker 2: degree range and prioritize safety. Make sure you have a
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  Speaker 2: friend with you and a plan to warm up fast after.
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  Speaker 2: And if you can't get to a pool or a
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  Speaker 2: lake or the ocean quickly, a cold shower or an
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  Speaker 2: ice bath can give you similar benefits. Our next mood
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  Speaker 2: boost starts with a team of researchers aiming to answer
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  Speaker 2: this question. What is the least amount of movement needed
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  Speaker 2: to offset the risks of sitting? Researchers at Columbia University
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Medical Center recruited a bunch of middle-aged and older adults
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  Speaker 2: and had them sit for eight hours, a typical work day.
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  Speaker 2: And then they started including breaks for them to walk
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  Speaker 2: on a treadmill. NPR's Alison Aubrey reported on this.
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  Speaker 8: They learned that just taking a one or two minute
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  Speaker 8: walk once per hour helped to lower blood pressure. And
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  Speaker 8: this wasn't a huge surprise because it's known that when
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  Speaker 8: you stand up, when you move, your muscles burn more
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  Speaker 8: fat and you increase blood flow. So that's very beneficial.
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  Speaker 2: That's helpful.
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  Speaker 8: But when the participants upped it to twice an hour
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  Speaker 8: on the treadmill for longer periods, up to five minutes,
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  Speaker 8: they saw more impressive results.
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  Speaker 2: So I have to tell you, I just did this.
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  Speaker 2: I put my shoes on, walked out the door, set
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  Speaker 2: a timer for five minutes and just kind of walked around,
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  Speaker 2: walked a few blocks, had the sun on my face.
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  Speaker 10: Nice.
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  Speaker 2: How did you feel? It felt really good. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I do try to stand up from my desk, but
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  Speaker 2: the walking part of it felt there was something else
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  Speaker 2: about that. It was like suddenly my problems didn't feel
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  Speaker 2: as heavy anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's big.
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  Speaker 8: That's worth noting. And I'll point out that there was
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  Speaker 8: one more benefit of these short, frequent breaks that was
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  Speaker 8: noted in the study. I spoke to Kathleen Janz. She's
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  Speaker 8: a health promotion researcher at the University of Iowa. And
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  Speaker 8: she points out that the participants in the study felt
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  Speaker 8: better when they built in more walking breaks.
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  Speaker 3: People felt less fatigued. People were in a better mood
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  Speaker 3: because they took those breaks.
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  Speaker 2: I wonder, too... Do you have to walk to get
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  Speaker 2: the benefits of this? Can you just move for five minutes? Like,
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  Speaker 2: can you vacuum or can you dance around your apartment
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  Speaker 2: for five minutes and get the same benefits?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 8: So however you do that, however you build in movement,
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  Speaker 8: that's the goal here. And if you're bored by walking,
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  Speaker 8: you can dance, as you say.
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  Speaker 2: That's our second mood booster. If you have 15 minutes,
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  Speaker 2: five minutes, one minute, get up out of bed or
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  Speaker 2: away from your desk and go on a walk or
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  Speaker 2: dance around your apartment or do some upright stretching or
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  Speaker 2: just do a load of laundry. Move that body. All right,
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  Speaker 2: our next mood booster comes from Life Kit's digital editor,
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  Speaker 2: Malika Gharib. Malika, I know that is your nine to
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  Speaker 2: five being our digital editor, but you actually have a
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  Speaker 2: five to nine after that. What is your other job?
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  Speaker 10: Yeah. I actually love that phrasing. I do a myriad
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  Speaker 10: of things. I am a cartoonist. I'm writing a screenplay.
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  Speaker 10: I'm a graphic novelist. Doing these things makes me feel
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  Speaker 10: really relaxed. And it's my way of expressing myself and
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  Speaker 10: my emotions and helps me understand what's going on inside.
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  Speaker 10: It's like a compulsion. It's a compulsion to help me
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  Speaker 10: understand myself and the world.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So you've actually looked into this, why it feels so
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  Speaker 2: good to make something. What is the benefit we get
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  Speaker 2: from whether it's doodling or some other creative hobby?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 10: So I reached out to X about this. I talked
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  Speaker 10: to Girija Kaimal, and she's a professor at Drexel University
• 10:05
  Speaker 10: and a researcher in art therapy.
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  Speaker 9: Things change in your body. Your stress levels go down.
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  Speaker 9: Your sense of perceived stress, your mood improves.
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  Speaker 10: A And so one of the coolest things that she
• 10:16
  Speaker 10: told me about this need and the reason why we
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  Speaker 10: make art is that it may serve an evolutionary purpose.
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  Speaker 10: Girija has this theory that art making helps us navigate
• 10:28
  Speaker 10: problems that might arise in the future. And she wrote
• 10:32
  Speaker 10: about this in a 2019 study in the Journal of
• 10:35
  Speaker 10: the American Art Therapy Association.
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  Speaker 9: So this act of imagination is actually an act of survival.
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  Speaker 2: It is survival.
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  Speaker 9: Preparing us to imagine possibilities.
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  Speaker 10: And that makes sense, right? We've been making art since
• 10:48
  Speaker 10: we were cave dwellers. And maybe making art helps us
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  Speaker 10: prepare for problems in our lives or helps us imagine
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  Speaker 10: better futures for ourselves.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like it can also take emotions that are
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  Speaker 2: in here and get them out there. So you can
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  Speaker 2: start to I don't know. It's almost like to remove
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  Speaker 2: them from your body and put them on the page.
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  Speaker 2: It almost sounds like a cliche, but yes, it's helping
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  Speaker 2: you process what maybe you didn't even fully understand you
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  Speaker 2: were feeling.
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  Speaker 10: Art can do amazing things and it can improve your
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  Speaker 10: mood in.
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  Speaker 2: A big way.
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  Speaker 9: Engaging in any sort of visual expression, coloring, doodling, free drawing,
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  Speaker 9: results in the reward pathway in the brain being activated,
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  Speaker 9: which means that you feel good and it's a perceived
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  Speaker 9: as a pleasurable experience.
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  Speaker 2: So the researchers have also found that coloring and other
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  Speaker 2: forms of art, they lower stress and anxiety, right?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 10: There was this 2016 paper in the Journal of the
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  Speaker 10: American Art Therapy Association that Girija worked on. And she
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  Speaker 10: and some researchers basically measured cortisol levels of 39 healthy adults.
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  Speaker 10: And they found that 45 minutes of creating art significantly
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  Speaker 10: lowered stress. cortisol levels.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so I wonder, Malika, is all art equally beneficial
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  Speaker 2: in this way? You know what? That's a really cool question.
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  Speaker 10: Eurasia recommends using modeling clay to just mess around with.
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  Speaker 10: Take some in your hand and make a bowl or
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  Speaker 10: make a sculpture or just do anything with it.
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  Speaker 9: Some media like clay, which engages perhaps both your hands
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  Speaker 9: and therefore many parts of your brain. Your sense of
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  Speaker 9: touch is deeply engaged, your sense of three-dimensional space, sight,
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  Speaker 9: maybe a little bit of sound, all these are engaged.
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  Speaker 9: So when you are using several parts of yourself for self-expression,
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  Speaker 9: that's likely going to be more beneficial.
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  Speaker 10: But really, she says, just do whatever feels good to you.
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  Speaker 10: If you really like making zines, which is what I
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  Speaker 10: like making, make zines. If you really like painting, paint.
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  Speaker 10: Do whatever feels good for you. You just want to
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  Speaker 10: be able to keep coming back to do that art thing.
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  Speaker 2: All right. So Malika, what is a good creative exercise
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  Speaker 2: someone could do if they have, say, 15 minutes and
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  Speaker 2: they want to lower their stress or feel like they're
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  Speaker 2: getting that reward?
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 10: So I'm the queen of micro art projects.
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  Speaker 2: Love it.
• 13:17
  Speaker 10: I'm a big believer of making things sloppy and fast
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  Speaker 10: just so that you get that high of having completed
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  Speaker 10: something and so one of the things that I love
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  Speaker 10: to recommend to people is to challenge yourself to make
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  Speaker 10: a little mini zine it's an eight page mini zine
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  Speaker 10: in one sitting and like in one sitting it can
• 13:37
  Speaker 10: be in five minutes or in 10 minutes you can
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  Speaker 10: finish a zine just like tell a story in eight
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  Speaker 10: pages and get it done.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Mood booster number three, create something. And Malika says, don't
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: be too precious about your creations. These do not have
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: to be perfect. We will have more Life Kit after
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: the break.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: This message comes from the Center for U.S. Voters Abroad Foundation.
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: U.S.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Citizens live, travel, and serve all over the world. But
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: wherever they are, they can stay connected to home through voting.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: All U.S. citizens abroad may request an absentee ballot to
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: vote in the 2026 election, and requesting yours is easy.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Keep your connections strong, no matter how far away you are.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Visit registerabroad.com to get started.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Rapid-fire round of mood boosters with NPR journalist Ryan Kelman. Hey, Ryan.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: Hey, Mariel.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: All right, so a few years ago, Ryan, you got
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: together with some other folks at NPR to look at
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: research-backed ways that we can make ourselves feel good, right?
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 14:45
  Speaker 11: So, you know, we were coming sort of out of
• 14:47
  Speaker 11: the pandemic at the time, which was incredibly isolating for
• 14:50
  Speaker 11: a lot of people. And, you know, people had been
• 14:53
  Speaker 11: deprived of many of their sources of joy that they
• 14:57
  Speaker 11: once had. So we had the idea to create an
• 15:02
  Speaker 11: app to help counteract some of that, shake off some
• 15:05
  Speaker 11: of those, you know, pandemic feelings. Big shout out to
• 15:08
  Speaker 11: Meredith Rizzo, Kamal Roth, and the whole News Apps team
• 15:12
  Speaker 11: here at NPR. And basically, the app offers a menu
• 15:17
  Speaker 11: of ways you can enter different positive emotional states like wonder, gratefulness, anticipation,
• 15:24
  Speaker 11: that kind of thing.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: The app is called NPR Joy Generator. You can find
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: it at npr.org slash joy. All right, Ryan, let's go
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: into some of these techniques.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: How about this?
• 15:34
  Speaker 11: How about we test them out on you?
• 15:36
  Speaker 10: Okay, I'm down.
• 15:37
  Speaker 11: So what I want you to do is listen to
• 15:39
  Speaker 11: this for me and tell me how it makes you feel.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: I don't like it. I don't like it.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: That's fair.
• 15:52
  Speaker 11: That's fair. That's not the sound for everyone. What that
• 15:56
  Speaker 11: actually is is someone playing with slime. Sounds weird, I know.
• 16:04
  Speaker 11: But for some lucky people like myself, sounds like that
• 16:08
  Speaker 11: will give you this sort of brain-tingly sensation. It's called
• 16:14
  Speaker 11: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, otherwise known as ASMR.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I have seen ASMR videos and some of them
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  Speaker 2: I like and some I don't. I get that sensation
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: when I watch people put makeup on other people.
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  Speaker 11: Oh, I like that fun specific detail about you.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Fantastic.
• 16:38
  Speaker 11: Yeah, so there actually isn't a ton of research. But
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  Speaker 11: in one study from 2018 that was published in the
• 16:44
  Speaker 11: journal PLOS One, a team of researchers hooked up dozens
• 16:48
  Speaker 11: of participants, people who got this ASMR feeling, to biological
• 16:54
  Speaker 11: feedback machinery. And they found that when they watched ASMR videos,
• 16:59
  Speaker 11: hearing those sounds of things like plastic wrappers crinkling, peeling garlic,
• 17:10
  Speaker 11: pouring a fizzy drink. When they heard those sounds, their
• 17:19
  Speaker 11: heart rates decreased on average by more than three beats
• 17:22
  Speaker 11: per minute, and they got these pleasurable chills, you know,
• 17:25
  Speaker 11: these goosebumps or shivers up your spine. For me personally,
• 17:31
  Speaker 11: it's hard to describe, but it's something like what you
• 17:35
  Speaker 11: might feel when you're listening to a really good song.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: I think what I like is about those makeup videos
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  Speaker 2: is that often the person putting the makeup on is
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: talking very softly too. Like they're sort of talking like this.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that that's the kind of ASMR that
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: I like.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:54
  Speaker 11: Whispering is big in the ASMR community for sure.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: And how much, I wonder like how much ASMR would
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: you need to listen to to get that mood boosting effect?
• 18:04
  Speaker 11: Well, with the videos that the researchers showed in that
• 18:08
  Speaker 11: one study, they were showing about three-minute videos. So, you know, conceivably,
• 18:12
  Speaker 11: we can get those tingly sensations pretty quickly.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: All right, mood booster number four, tap into ASMR to
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: calm your mind. Watch a soothing video online. Figure out
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: the triggers that are most pleasing for you. What is
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: the next mood booster?
• 18:28
  Speaker 11: Well, let me ask you this. Are you a cat
• 18:31
  Speaker 11: person or a dog person?
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: I would say dog person.
• 18:34
  Speaker 11: Okay, good answer. No wrong answer there, folks. It's all good.
• 18:39
  Speaker 11: But here, I'm going to send you this link of
• 18:43
  Speaker 11: a YouTube video to watch for me. Okay, so we're
• 18:45
  Speaker 11: watching this puppy pile dog video, right?
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just like, it looks like maybe a mama
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: dog with her little baby puppies sleeping next to her.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: And they're just like breathing and somebody was petting their fur.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Is this a live stream?
• 19:00
  Speaker 11: Yeah, this is a live stream. So what's going on here,
• 19:03
  Speaker 11: what's meant to be happening here is the power of cuteness.
• 19:09
  Speaker 11: Some lucky researchers at the University of Leeds actually have
• 19:13
  Speaker 11: attempted to look into why we like watching puppies and kittens,
• 19:18
  Speaker 11: stuff like that so much. And they showed 30 minute
• 19:22
  Speaker 11: montages of cute animal videos to stressed out college students.
• 19:27
  Speaker 11: And they found that their blood pressure, heart rate, and
• 19:30
  Speaker 11: anxiety all dropped.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: And it's like you don't actually even need to be
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: with a puppy. You could just look at videos of puppies.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right?
• 19:40
  Speaker 11: There's a reason that so much of my social media
• 19:44
  Speaker 11: is subscriptions to dogs doing things and other cute animals.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Mood booster number five. Maybe you could have guessed this one,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: but cute animals make us feel good. So sidle up
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: next to your cat or dog or parrot or rabbit
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: or snake, if that's what you're into. No pets in
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: your house? Those live puppy cams and cat cams on
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: the internet do the same thing for us.
• 20:08
  Speaker 11: Okay, so I have one last thing for you to
• 20:10
  Speaker 11: listen to. And I just want you to sort of
• 20:13
  Speaker 11: note what you're feeling as you listen to it. Does
• 20:15
  Speaker 11: it evoke anything? Does it remind you of anything? So
• 20:19
  Speaker 11: let's check it out.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Ooh, it feels cozy. Huh. I'm feeling like cozy, mystical beachfront.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Grandma's cottage.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 20:38
  Speaker 11: So yeah, homey, right? It's kind of homey. So yeah,
• 20:41
  Speaker 11: what we were doing in creating this app for this
• 20:44
  Speaker 11: particular chapter of it, right, we were trying to put
• 20:47
  Speaker 11: together sounds and visuals that might evoke memories. And for,
• 20:52
  Speaker 11: you know, a broad generation of listeners, right? So from
• 20:55
  Speaker 11: the sound of a disk drive booting up to a
• 20:59
  Speaker 11: cat purring to, you know, rain on a window pane.
• 21:03
  Speaker 11: So these are things that might feel like familiar and
• 21:06
  Speaker 11: take you back to your childhood, remind you of your past.
• 21:10
  Speaker 11: And what we were trying to tap into is nostalgia.
• 21:14
  Speaker 11: And that's that bittersweet yearning, right? We feel to go
• 21:18
  Speaker 11: back in time. And it's a pretty intricate emotion, actually.
• 21:22
  Speaker 11: For one, nostalgia is actually a universal experience. And even
• 21:26
  Speaker 11: kids feel it.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, so why? Sometimes when I think of nostalgia, I
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: think it feels a little sad. So I'm surprised this
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: is a mood booster.
• 21:37
  Speaker 11: Right, right. So what scientists think is that nostalgia has
• 21:42
  Speaker 11: a couple of different functions, right? For one, tapping into
• 21:46
  Speaker 11: these memories might help us when we're lonely, right? The
• 21:49
  Speaker 11: good ones, by reminding us of fond, personally meaningful times.
• 21:55
  Speaker 11: And when we're nostalgic, people report feeling a stronger sense
• 21:59
  Speaker 11: of belonging and describe their lives as more meaningful. And
• 22:03
  Speaker 11: these memories remind us also to strengthen our current relationships.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: It sounds like nostalgia can be a little reminder of
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: what we love or what matters to us.
• 22:18
  Speaker 11: Right, exactly.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: How would you put yourself in this state apart from
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: listening to some audio like we just did?
• 22:25
  Speaker 11: Yeah, you can actively put yourself in this state. You
• 22:28
  Speaker 11: could go through your camera roll and and like pull
• 22:31
  Speaker 11: up pictures from, you know, years ago or even not
• 22:34
  Speaker 11: even that long ago. You could cook an old family
• 22:37
  Speaker 11: recipe or read your favorite kid's book from growing up.
• 22:41
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 22:43
  Speaker 11: You know, I, something I like to do is like,
• 22:45
  Speaker 11: listen to the music I listened to in high school, which,
• 22:47
  Speaker 11: you know, actually had like different meaning for me then,
• 22:50
  Speaker 11: but I still look back on it with nostalgia.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: There's that one song. It's like, Is it Fall Out Boy?
• 22:57
  Speaker 11: I hope it's Fall Out Boy.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Sugar, we're going down. We're going down, down in an
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: earlier round.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Sugar, we're going down swinging. Yes.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, who is that?
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Fall Out Boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. That song
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: takes me back. Thank you, Ryan, for all these mood boosters.
• 23:21
  Speaker 11: Yeah, happy to be here.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: So mood booster number six is... Nostalgia is a powerful, complicated,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: but deeply enriching emotion. Spend a few minutes looking back
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: in your camera roll. Maybe go through the pictures you
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: took on this very day 5, 10, or 15 years ago. Or,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Ryan says, you could listen to your favorite songs from
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: high school just to feel that connection to your younger self. Okay,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: it's time for a recap. If you're feeling low energy
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: or listless or just having a blah day, that's the
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: scientific term for it I've heard, we've got tips for
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: you that research shows will help make you feel better.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Shock your body with something cold. Cold plunge, a splash
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: at the pool, a cold shower. Move your body. Maybe
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: go on a walk or a dance around the house
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: or wave your arms around. Create something. Make it fast
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: and messy. This isn't the time to be precious. Watch
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: some ASMR videos to get those nice brain tingles going.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Spend some time loving up on cute animals virtually or
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: in person. And tap into your nostalgia. Crack open the
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: old Facebook albums. Take a little virtual walk down memory lane.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: For more Life Kit, check out our other episodes. We've
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: got one on different stress resets to snap out of
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: your anxiety and another on longer term ways to feel
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: happier in life. You can find those at npr.org slash
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: life kit. And if you love Life Kit and want
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: even more, subscribe to our newsletter at npr.org slash life
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: kit newsletter. Also, we love hearing from you. So if
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: you have episode ideas or feedback you want to share,
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: email us at lifekit at npr.org. This episode of Life
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Kit was produced by Margaret Serino. Our digital editor is
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Malika Gharib, and our visuals editor is CJ Riquelon. Megan
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Cain is our senior supervising editor, and Lauren Gonzalez is
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tegel,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Claire Marie Schneider, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Kwesi Lee. I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening. This week
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: on Newsmakers, after more than a decade in comedy, I
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: wasn't sure that we would get here.
• 25:29
  Speaker 7: Robbie Hoffman is fearless.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: I had a small feeling I wasn't sure.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: And fully herself.
• 25:36
  Speaker 9: My landlord.
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: Hello?
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: You can go ahead and flash.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not home now. I'm doing something. We plunge
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: into comedy and success with Robbie Hoffman on NPR's Newsmakers.
• 25:48
  Speaker 7: How do products end up on big box shelves? Well,
• 25:51
  Speaker 7: we at Planet Money pitch the planet money.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Board game.
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: I'm trying not to think how much of a big
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• 25:58
  Speaker 4: It's really big.
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  Speaker 1: Is it helpful if I remind you how big it is?
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• 26:03
  Speaker 7: We go inside the minds of the people who decide
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