This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

There are so many small delights that people have found themselves longing for during this past year.

The sudden hush in a movie theater as the lights go down.

The roar of an airplane's engines as it accelerates down a runway bound for a new destination.

The happy buzz of conversation and laughter in a crowded restaurant.

Another tiny pleasure that has become more rare during the pandemic.

The unexpected moments that we call coincidences.

Staying at home has meant fewer opportunities for chance encounters,

like running into a neighbor on a vacation,

or discovering during a chat at the water cooler that you share the same birthday as a coworker.

As the pandemic is brought under control in some parts of the world and people start to move about,

we are more likely to experience coincidences.

And that made us think about an episode a couple of years ago when two different listeners called into Hidden Brain.

So I was a student at the University of Rhode Island and we were in this writing class.

This is Amanda Birch. She told us she was chatting with the teacher of her writing class.

The teacher mentioned that she lived in a small town in Vermont.

The same small town it turned out where Amanda's mother had grown up.

The teacher asked Amanda what her mother's maiden name was.

Amanda told her.

She just kind of dropped through pen and she goes, you're not going to believe this.

But I live in the house where your mother grew up.

The other listener who called us was Sarah Toporov.

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