Hello and

welcome to the psychology podcast where we give you insights into the mind, brain, behavior, and creativity.

Each episode will feature a guest who will stimulate your mind and give you a greater

understanding of yourself, others, and the world we live in.

Hopefully we'll also provide a glimpse into human possibility.

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Thanks for listening and enjoy the podcast.

Melissa is a senior editor covering health and psychology for New York's The Cut.

In 2014, she co-founded New York's popular social science site, Science of Us.

Her work has appeared in

parents and today.com. Her new book, cringe worthy, is her first book. Hey, great to

chat with you today. Nice to chat with you. So awkwardness. Wow, what a topic. Has no one else ever really

covered this topic before in a popular treatment? Well, no one had really

covered it in the way that was

sort of like a feeling you know like I think as I was working on this book people would

would hear that I was writing a book about awkwardness and they would say to me like, oh, you don't strike me as particularly awkward and you know, I would be like, thank you. I will take the compliment, but that's kind of not what I was curious about. I mean, I'm glad I don't come off as awkward but I feel this way a lot. I feel kind of

self-conscious and I feel uncertain about what to say or do next and I feel just you know I'm

kind of like thinking about like oh why did I say that why did I do that

that was dumb so yeah I couldn't really find much that had covered it in that way

that I was interested in and so I was just like okay I guess I'll do it myself.

Yeah no I'm glad you did I mean it was a really hallucinating book.

But I do wonder about this thing that you know humans are funny creatures you know like dogs are

...