What Your Love Life Can Teach You About Work Relationships with psychotherapist Esther Perel

A Bit of Optimism

The Optimism Company from Simon Sinek

Business, Education, Careers, Self-improvement

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’ve never had more freedom in our relationships—yet many of us feel more disconnected than ever. Marriage, family, and even the workplace have all been reshaped by shifting norms, new technologies, and rising expectations. Happiness, once a nice-to-have, is now the very glue that keeps both couples and teams together. Few people understand these changes better than Esther Perel. For decades, she’s helped us rethink intimacy, navigate conflict, and reimagine what a healthy connection looks like—at home and now at work with her new conversation inducing game of questions, Where Should We Begin? At Work. Esther and I explore how our ideas of love and partnership have evolved, why friendships can be just as life-giving as romance, and why learning to “talk to strangers” may be the most important skill for the next generation. We also dive into the role of play, trust, and risk-taking in building lasting bonds. If you care about creating relationships that are strong enough to withstand the pressures of modern life, this episode might just be for you. This is A Bit of Optimism. To learn more about Esther’s work, visit: www.estherperel.com And to check out Where Should We Begin? At Work here: https://game.estherperel.com/products/where-should-we-begin-at-work?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21749016432&gbraid=0AAAAA93e13laOUsIrrGSZUodaliBNmZVP&gclid=CjwKCAjw_fnFBhB0EiwAH_MfZtrMmVTRj7QgBn4ER-_HF10aCifdOOpY1DLy9R4dt4K0Sbh2WKJDeRoC2XUQAvD_BwE

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'll give you a little anecdote.
0:01.8	I don't think anecdotes describe the full reality, but it was a moment for me that was very interesting.
0:07.4	My younger son was in kindergarten.
0:09.1	He had a very best friend.
0:10.8	I was convinced he would go into first grade with that same friend.
0:14.5	No, I went to the principal.
0:16.6	I said, why did you separate them?
0:18.5	They were getting so long.
0:19.7	It was such a beautiful friendship
0:21.0	that could become, you know, my childhood friend like I have from age six. She said, they need to
0:26.1	learn to make new friends each time. I said, it's not being trained for mobility. He's a five-year-old
0:32.0	who is being trained for long-term relationships. It's not the same. And it was really clear. That was the idea. The idea is not how do you continue a long-term relationships. It's not the same. And it was really clear.
0:38.2	That was the idea.
0:39.1	The idea is not how do you continue a long-standing friendship
0:42.4	is how do you make new friends all the time?
0:45.8	I thought that was just an amazing cultural encounter.
0:49.6	Wow.
0:50.5	So, wow.
0:52.4	So we're actually training our young to suck it up and get over it and move on.
0:57.2	The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives. This is an idea that
1:04.2	Esther Perel has been trying to instill in us for decades. She is the guru of human relationships, and she's been trying to teach us in
1:13.3	all of her work how we can have successful romantic relationships. I've known Esther for years,
	...

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