Ted Audio Collective

It's a kind of tendency to states of poignancy, and sorrow and longing.

It's an intense awareness of the way in which joy and sorrow are forever paired.

It's an intense awareness of the way in which everyone and everything we love most will

not be here forever.

From the Ted Audio Collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Millman.

For 18 years, Debbie Millman has been talking with designers and other creative people about

what they do, how they got to be who they are, and what they're thinking about and working

on.

On this episode, Susan Cain talks about the value of longing and sorrow.

I find it so mystifying to live in a culture that's so insistent, only on smiles, only

on upbeat, only on optimism.

If we think more positively about being an introvert today than we did 10 years ago, Susan

Cain is the reason why.

Her 2012 book Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, made

the case that our culture gets introverts all wrong, and often undervalues them.

In 2016, she followed up with the book Quiet Power, The Secret Strengths of Introverts.

Now, she's investigating another underappreciated aspect of the human experience.

Her latest book is titled Bittersweet, How Longing and Soran Make Us Whole.

Here she argues that a bittersweet melancholic outlook makes emotional room for beauty,

creativity, and love, and we're going to talk all about that today.

Susan Cain, welcome to Design Matters.

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