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Welcome to Raising Good Humans. I'm Dr. Alisa Presman and today I am so excited to have a

conversation with Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet the Power of Introverts

in a world that can't stop talking. She has a website Quiet Revolution. She has just done so much

cool work on the power of introverts and her latest book is so special. It's called Bittersweet,

how sorrow and longing make us whole. And we're talking about Bittersweet because it really calls

into question the way we treat emotions and experiences, the way we overpromote positivity and

optimism, which are wonderful things, but they don't need to be the only things and the way we

pathologize melancholy and how we can do a little bit better at helping our children experience

the range of emotions that make up being a human being and help when kids are experiencing

emotions that are typically more challenging. If you enjoy this episode, don't hesitate to

subscribe, rate and write a little review. Every review that you write helps generate more coverage

for the podcast and get the word out there more. I will put in the show notes a link to buy

Susan's new book. And also if you go to Susancain.net, you can take the Bittersweet quiz to learn a

little bit more about your personal orientation and to gain insight into the orientation of your

children and remembering the often overlooked powers of Bittersweetness. What I love most about

this conversation is the emphasis on how there really is no right or wrong way to be. We just

are who we are and sometimes we forget to embrace the parts of who we are and how we feel that

may in fact be so powerful and when we can appreciate this whole range of ways of being in the

world, we can help our children feel valued for exactly who they are. And just to start this

conversation, I'm going to give you Susan's definition of Bittersweetness. Bittersweetness is

a tendency to states of longing, poignancy and sorrow and acute awareness of passing time

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