Bruce Feiler

And then we would make stories to tell them so they could be replicable.

And that in a lot of ways is what created organized religion.

So now if we jump to the present,

We're in this interesting moment, as we all know, right?

So we have a lot of us still define ourselves as being religious and being believers and belonging in communities.

But a lot of people are spiritual but not religious, and some people are entirely irreligious.

But what's happening and what motivated me to do this project to begin with is that we are in this incredible renaissance of new rituals around the world.

So things that we never honored before in organized religion like organ donation or adoption, not just marriage but divorce, not just fertility but infertility.

cancerversaries, soberversaries, your first phone, on and on and on.

And so I think that what's happening is there is this groundswell desire to let's find new ways to be together.

And I call it the ritual renaissance.

And it's absolutely inspiring because it shows us at this moment, at this exact moment, when everyone thinks that AI is going to destroy us and our algorithms are going to divide us,

that there's gonna be a human response to all of that.

And the humans know we must meet together.

There's countless, hundreds and hundreds of studies that show that rituals help us reduce stress in times of change, feel connected to those we're doing these experiences with,

And also that the more we invest in these experiences, the more we take out of them.

So what inspires me is the call that this makes to all of us to find new ways, whatever it is, loss of a company, loss of a job, retiring, entering a new phase of life, moving.

These are all new rituals that are popping up as we find new ways to respond to all the ways that we feel divided.

They do last.

The impulse lasts.