Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a podcast from the American Psychological Association.

I'm your host, Caitlin Luna.

I'm joined by two guests.

We have Dr. Lynn Buffka, Associate Executive Director for Research and Policy at APA and an APA fellow.

And we have Dr. Jeannie Safer, an APA fellow who has been in private practice for over 40 years.

She's also the host of the podcast.

I love you, but I hate your politics.

Our discussion is on managing stress at holiday gatherings during these divisive times.

Welcome, Dr. Bufka and Dr. Safer.

Glad to be here.

Thanks for having us.

So at this point, we've made it past Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, and now Christmas and New Year's are upon us.

And sure, many, we're holiday parties.

So there's no doubt in my mind that people out there have experienced at least one uncomfortable conversation with a loved one or a friend.

So we're looking for advice today on how to navigate these very tricky topics with people we care about.

So I'll start with you, Dr. Safer.

What advice do you have?

Well, the first thing is that everybody's nervous.

It's not just you.

That's why every magazine, every internet thing, has 5,000 articles on other things to talk about at the holidays, except politics.

There was this thing in the New York Times about this. There was something on Huffington.

Isn't it sad that we can't think of anything to talk about other than politics these days?

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