Shankar Vedantam

That's right.

And actually, even the emotional experience isn't changing, right?

Things were hard and later things were better.

But I could cut up the same exact sequence of not only sort of objective chronological facts, but also the emotions associated with them.

And I could cut up that story into ways that would render it with different thematic arcs.

And there's real consequences for that.

We know from the research that contamination themes in people's stories tend to be associated with worse well-being, and redemption tends to be associated with positive well-being.

Jonathan, I want to walk you through a story from a listener named Cassandra.

Here's the first part of her story.

We were sleeping.

She woke us both up.

I tried to turn my light on, but the power was off and I couldn't understand why the light wouldn't turn on.

The house was covered in black smoke.

My husband and I wound up running across the end of the bed and we slammed into each other.

I knocked him out.

Thank you, Cassandra, for being willing to share that story.

And I'm so sorry that happened to you.

This is a highly dramatic moment.

And it's certainly setting up the dramatic tension.

I'm dying to know what happens next.