Shankar Vedantam

Can you explain what these two are, perhaps with some examples, Jonathan?

Sure.

And these are two of many themes that show up in people's stories.

Contamination stories are simply good turns bad.

And redemption is bad turns good.

So, you know, all lives have good and bad in them.

But these themes are very much about where we draw connections and parse the chapter breaks.

For example, in the story that I shared with you the last time we talked, it was a story about my experience in college, in studying abroad, and then going into graduate school.

And things had been challenging for quite a while, and I really threw myself into my academic work looking towards graduate school.

And then when I applied to graduate schools,

I only got into one of the programs that I had applied to.

And at the time, that felt like a big letdown.

Now, when I look back from a vantage point 20 years later, it's one of the most important turning points in my life.

I really found my intellectual passion.

I worked with a graduate mentor who really nurtured my career.

I met the person who I went on to marry and have children with.

So at the time, I might have cut that experience into a contamination experience where I was working really hard and it didn't turn out.

But when I move the ending of that story later and incorporate what came afterwards when I started graduate school, the chapter, the transition from college into graduate school actually turns out to be this redemptive story where my one option turned out to be a fantastic pathway for me.

The striking thing, of course, here is that the facts of your story are not necessarily changing.

It's just where you choose to start and where you choose to stop the story.