Hey everyone. All this week, we've been looking back at 2025 and talking about some of the things

that really defined the year, or how the year defined some of the things in it. Today, we're doing

something a little different. It's the last day of the year, which means a time to look back and

reflect. You always hear the old adage that you can't control events,

only yourself. So in a year buffeted by hurricane force events, how did we do? And can we do

better? To answer those questions, we're turning to a show that's really all about how to do things

better. I'm talking about how to.

Every week, how to explores listeners' thorniest problems and tries to solve them, with the help of some experts.

They just wrapped up 2025 with a look back at their favorite advice of the year.

And they did some check-ins with the listeners they helped this year to see how things are going.

We wanted to share it with you because getting through a bad time is a lot easier with a little help.

Okay, here's the show.

My favorite piece of advice, or maybe the piece of advice that has like had the most impact on me is actually, perhaps unsurprisingly, the episode where I got hypnotized.

Like I got hypnotized on the air, which was great.

How do you feel?

Um, you know, a little bit like I just woke up from a nap or something.

I keep thinking about something that David Spiegel, who was the expert in that, said about the

way hypnosis works, which is something like, there's three ways it works, but one of them is

like you have disconnection from your usual assumptions about who you are. You have this narrative

in your head that says, I'm the kind of person who does this. I never do that.

I can't do that.

I always do that.

...