HURT SO GOOD: The Pleasures of Suffering (Paul Bloom & Susan Cain)

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Education, Science

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some people think humans are natural pleasure seekers. But not psychologist Paul Bloom. In his new book, “The Sweet Spot,” Paul says we’re pain seekers, too. Just think about all the uncomfortable things we do for fun — eating spicy food, climbing treacherous mountains, watching scary movies, engaging in BDSM. Why do that stuff? According to Paul, it’s because pain can enhance pleasure, chosen suffering can make you more resilient, and adversity can suffuse your life with meaning. We can all benefit from a little discomfort, and in this intimate conversation with Next Big Idea Club curator Susan Cain, Paul explains how to fit more of it into our lives. Next Big Idea Club: Get 20% off an express membership when you use the code PODCAST20 at www.nextbigideaclub.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	LinkedIn presents.
0:05.6	I'm Rufus Griskim, and this is the next big idea.
0:09.6	Today, Kent's suffering gives you pleasure.
0:12.9	On the show today, we're going to share a conversation between our curator, Susan Cain,
0:33.4	and psychologist Paul Bloom about Paul's new book, The Sweet Spot, the pleasures of suffering
0:39.1	and the search for meaning.
0:40.9	To kick things off, let's bring in our producer, Caleb.
0:44.4	Hi, Caleb.
0:45.4	Hey, Rufus.
0:47.0	This book really resonated for you, didn't it?
0:50.3	It did.
0:51.1	It did.
0:51.6	First, let me just say, Paul is this incredibly esteemed psychologist.
0:56.9	He's a professor at Yale and at the University of Toronto.
1:00.6	He's written a couple of other highly regarded books.
1:04.3	In The Sweet Spot, he sets out to try to understand why people intentionally do painful things,
1:10.4	like why do we climb mountains or why do we eat spicy food.
1:14.4	He says it's because sometimes pain can actually enhance pleasure.
1:20.4	Put it another way, he comes to the same conclusion that John Mellon Camp came to back in 1982.
1:34.4	And I have to tell you, Rufus, I've actually never liked that song,
1:39.3	and I didn't initially like Paul's theory either.
1:43.7	Because personally, I am just not big on pain.
	...

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