Why You Need the Good Stress of Socializing

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You may have heard of hormesis — the idea that intentionally embracing small stressors activates the body’s repair and defense systems, building resilience, improving how the body and even the microbiome function, and ultimately protecting against the harms of chronic stress.

We typically think of these hormetic stressors in terms of things like exercising, taking ice baths, sitting in a sauna, and ingesting certain plant compounds. But you ought to consider adding socializing to that list.

As my guest today explains, while we tend to avoid socializing as we do all stressors — even the good ones — it's something that can strengthen our health, resilience, immunity, and sense of meaning. Jeffrey Hall, professor of communication studies and co-author of The Social Biome: How Everyday Communication Connects and Shapes Us, joins me to discuss why relationships are harder to build in the modern world, how our adolescent approach to making friends needs to evolve, and why we must intentionally “exercise” our social muscles in a world where they'll otherwise atrophy.

Resources Related to the Podcast

Connect With Jeffrey Hall

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
0:04.8	Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable
0:10.3	themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there.
0:14.7	Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time. From startups to scaleups, online,
0:20.1	in person and on the go shopify is made for entrepreneurs
0:23.3	like you sign up for your one dollar a month trial at shopify dot com slash setup
0:28.6	hey this is bret before we get to the show i have a quick favor to ask of you so you all know
0:33.3	this podcast is ad supported and we want to make sure the ads you hear are actually relevant to you.
0:38.6	To help us out, we put together a quick listener survey. It only takes about four minutes to
0:42.8	complete. When you finish the survey, you can enter to win a $250 gift card at Huckberry.
0:48.3	The deadline to complete the survey and enter our drawing is October 31st, 2025, and after that,
0:53.9	we'll randomly select one winner.
0:56.0	Head to aOM.
0:57.0	com.
0:57.9	I.S.
0:57.9	survey to take the survey.
0:59.9	So again, that's aOM.
1:01.1	com.
1:01.1	I.S.
1:02.0	slash survey.
1:02.5	It only takes four minutes.
1:03.9	Thanks for supporting the Art of Manliness podcast.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Art of Manliness, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Art of Manliness and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.