The COVID-19 pandemic has created a world where we humans don’t touch each other nearly as much as we used to. How will a touchless world change us?
Neuroscientist David Linden told us that touch is crucial to early human development, even more so than being able to see or hear. And touch is key to life satisfaction and happiness when we’re older, too. (Even basketball teams have more wins when team members positively touch each other.) But after the pandemic ends, will people even want to touch each other again? If not, Linden worries we may find ourselves living in a colder, less trusting world. We’ll talk with Linden this Friday at noon, and check in with writer Terry Tempest Williams and therapist Kristin Hodson to hear how they are thinking about our less touchy world.
GUESTS
- David Linden, professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, author of Touch: The Science of the Hand, Heart and Mind [IndieBound|Amazon|Bookshop|Audible] and most recently, Unique: The New Science of Human Individuality. [IndieBound| Bookshop|Amazon] | @david_j_linden
- Terry Tempest Williams, Writer-In-Residence at the Harvard Divinity School and author, most recently, of Erosion: Essays of Undoing. [IndieBound | Bookshop| Amazon |Audible] To read her essay, “Unraveling,” go to EmergenceMagazine.org. | @TempestWilliams
- Kristin Hodson, licensed clinical social worker, founder and executive director of The Healing Group and the co-author of Real Intimacy: A Couples Guide for Genuine, Healthy Sexuality. [Bookshop| IndieBound | Amazon] | @Thehealinggroup
