Shankar Vedantam

So I think it's fair to say, Jonathan, that at this point in the story, Cassandra's story is pretty horrific.

No one would actually want to be in Cassandra's shoes.

This is definitely almost a contamination story because it started out with everyone sleeping peacefully at night and suddenly there's this terrible thing that happens to them.

So let me play you the rest of Cassandra's story.

It picks up from here.

And when he came to, and I don't know when that was, and came out of the house, he went and grabbed a bathrobe.

It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Jonathan, this is an amazing story.

Talk about the turn that she makes here.

It sure is an amazing story and I'm glad that everyone turned out okay.

It's kind of remarkable to be able to find any humor amidst this, let alone the poetry of the Christmas lights being the first responders on their way.

Yeah, I mean...

Cassandra certainly ends this story with a redemptive turn, right?

It all turned out okay.

And she says at the end, we're even better as a result.

So that is quite something to be able to see that kind of turnaround in the wake of such a dramatic and terrible event.

Talk a little bit more about the effects of redemption stories on our well-being, Jonathan.

So the research demonstrates over and over that when we're able to take negative experiences and find something redemptive in them, that that tends to be good for our psychological well-being.

But we live in a rich narrative ecology of stories.

There are stories all around us.