Hey there, what now listeners.

This is Shankar Vedantam,

host of the podcast, Hidden Brain.

Each week, Hidden Brain explores the types of questions

you've probably pondered in your own life.

Questions like, how can I build better habits?

What can I do to make my work more fulfilling?

Why do my best friend and I always seem to talk past each other? In other words, we talk

about what it means to be human and share science-backed insights about your mind and those are the

people around you. One of the topics that we talk a lot about on Hidden Brain is purpose and meaning.

We all want to feel like we matter and that

we're spending our lives in ways that reflect who we are and what we value. We talked about this

recently with Victor Strecker. He researches the topic of purpose and the University of Michigan.

His interest in purpose has been profoundly shaped by

events in his own life, including his daughter Julia's health struggles. Julia's heart was damaged by a

virus when she was an infant, and she ended up having two heart transplants before passing away

at the age of 19. In a recent conversation with me, Vic shared how he struggled with his grief after

Julia's death and how the experience has shaped his thoughts on how we can all cultivate

purpose and meaning in our own lives.

Today, we bring you a portion of that conversation, as Vic recalls the days he spent in a family cabin

on Lake Michigan after Julia's death. He spent much of his time numbing himself with TV,

but he also had brought some books with him. Now and then, he would dip into them.

...