It's to the best of our knowledge from PRX.

I'm Anne Strange Champs.

Why is the world so cynical?

Let me give you an example of this from my son, who's now in college, but when he was in high school, he would come home and talk about his day.

And describing the experience of being in a big public high school.

He had to put his armor on to get through an average day.

He said the teasing, the mocking was relentless.

He always had to be ready with a quick comeback.

If you showed any vulnerability, any sincerity, you would get eaten alive.

I think it's true, and if you get a group of young people in a room and you start talking

about this problem, it just comes flooding out how hungry people are for an irony-free interaction

with another human being.

Coming up, we make the case for sincerity.

Wisconsin Public Radio.

It's to the best of our knowledge.

I'm Anne Strangeamps.

Let's play a game.

We are no... Oh, I like the noise.

We are waiting to be born.

Okay, and now we've been born.

You're crying.

I'm playing this new online game with my producer, Mark Rickers.

...