Stories. The Brothers Grimm were masters at collecting stories. And how important is that?

Very. We define our lives through stories. We're living stories. We're each the star of our own movie,

our own novel, we're all the protagonists, all in some sort of heroes journey.

The cultures we live in provide the backdrop for our tales, our friends, enemies, families,

neighbors, co-workers, and fellow citizens, fill out the supporting castes. The musicians of our

culture provide us with our own soundtracks, each of them telling their own stories.

We love stories because when we read them or watch them or listen to them, we're always

hearing or watching or reading a little bit or a lot about ourselves. Why do we cry at the

movies? Or when we read a book or listen to a podcast? Because we can relate. We personalize

the information we're consuming when someone loses a child we hurt, unless we're cognitively

incapable of doing so like some of the sociopaths and psychopaths we've covered here. And we hurt

at least in part or in large part because we imagine what it would be like to lose our own child,

or what it might feel like to do so if we don't have a child. I watched that newscore

says you movie The Irishman with my wife Lindsay and our kids Kylerman row recently.

And after watching him and row got very emotional. Why? I'll try and tell you without spoiling the film.

One of the dark lessons of the movie is that if you live long enough, there's a good chance that

you will end up spending your final days, especially alone. All your friends and peers will have

already passed. No one will be there to talk about all the fun old times used to have together.

All the people who defined your life, they'll be gone. There will be no one left to relive

the good old days with. It's frankly incredibly sad to think about. I remember my great-grandmother

reaching that age. She was in her 90s and one day she told me she just didn't want to go on anymore.

Not in some morbid way, just a matter of factly. She said she didn't understand why she was still

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