As you probably notice, this month, we're bringing you our Life of Purpose series and revisiting

some of our most transformative episodes. Tune in to explore expert insights and practical

strategies on help, performance, and community well-being, all aimed at helping you achieve

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recaps of the key ideas in each interview, but at the end of the series, you'll receive our free Life of Purpose ebook. What you have to do is go to UnmistakableCreative.com slash Life Purpose. Again, that's unmistakablecreative.com slash life purpose. I'm Sreeny Rao, and this is the Unmistakable Creative Podcast, where you get a window into the stories and insights

of the most innovative and creative minds who started movements, built thriving businesses,

written bestselling books, and created insanely interesting art. For more, check out our 500

episode archive at UnmistakableCreative.com.

Anna, welcome to The Unmistakable Creative.

Thanks so much for taking the time to join us.

Sure, I'm happy to.

Thanks for inviting me.

Yeah, it is my pleasure to have you here.

So I actually heard about you by way of your book, Dopamine Nation, which I absolutely loved.

And we've had a lot of former Stanford professors here as guests.

And you know, you're connected to me by one of our former guests. But before we get into the book, I wanted to start asking, what is one of the most important things that you learned from one or both of your parents that influenced and shaped who you've become and what you've ended up doing with your life and your career? Oh, interesting. So was it one or both of my parents? Is that what you said?

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Um, that, you know, it's hard to know how revealing to be with, with that sort of thing.

Gosh. Um, my parents were immigrants and, um, I guess I learned from them a cautionary tale about how difficult it is to be an immigrant and how isolating.

And maybe it was the absence of extended family and community growing up that made me really want to dedicate myself to being rooted

in one place and also to family and community. So those were important legacies.

Yeah. For you, like, you know, Indian immigrants, I mean, you're a doctor, so you probably already know this. But like typically an Indian kid growing up, at least in the generation that I grew up and has taught doctor, lawyer, engineer. You do one of those things and you will have a good life. And that is kind of the default narrative. So I wonder, like, what did your parents teach you about making your way in the world? Because for a long time, I questioned that.

But then I realized the perspective that my parents were coming from made a lot more sense.

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