YouSaid · the spoken record

Corey Keyes

lines on the record: 48
first: 2024-02-26
most recent: 2024-02-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“That have competition and outcomes. For adults, games can be, I'm considering that a form of play, especially if the outcome doesn't determine your fun or if the outcome doesn't erase the joy and your memory of the fun you have just because you may have lost. But the point of play is that it takes you out of the commodity of time. We've commodified our time in the modern world where time is money and it has to be useful. And that really gets in the way of play and leisure because some people have the mindset that leisure and play is a waste of time. And so doing it doesn't bring them anything of joy or anything beneficial.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Result of it. And so that difference between passive and active is very fundamental. And the only way I can reduce it down in simple terms is the passive is that you sit back and it's delivered to you. And I get it. That can be fun and a great break from the busy world. But if you're doing leisure to encourage well-being and address languishing, it's the active stuff that's going to help. Play is I wouldn't make a big distinction between play and leisure. I think in the adult world, play is called leisure, but I still like when I reserve the word play for something that you do just for the sake of fun or enjoyment. And I want to include games because a lot of researchers that focus on play and childhood exclude things like games that are already pre-formulated for us.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Research was very clear on this active versus passive leisure. And passive leisure is not conducive to promoting well-being. And passive leisure, it's a reflection of the modern world where we almost all what we considered our leisure is delivered to us and for us. And you can sit down and consume it. The difference is active leisure is something that you have to get up and go out and do and experience and create for yourself hiking, biking, you name it, or hobbies or so forth. Even reading for some is considered active leisure. And by the way, as I remember one study showing that some people who read experience flow as a”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think a lot of that comes from things like inequality, being low in the social hierarchy, experiencing sexism, raism, or homophobia, you name it. All these forms, all these isms undermine our sense that we have anything of value to give to the world. And that, I think I realize and empathize with because I too, as I talked about, you mentioned this earlier, I had to overcome the messages somehow I wasn't needed here, I didn't belong, I wasn't wanted, and I had nothing to give. And I was just, you know, trash. And I know what it's like to get that message. You have no value and you don't belong. And I think that's one of the most damaging effects of all the isms and the inequality in our world.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. I think we've made a good deal of progress in that regard where social convention is no longer defining for people ahead of time what their purpose or sole purpose in life might be. And so people do have a lot more opportunity, not everyone, but more opportunity for choosing the way in which they're going to express their desire to help”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Volunteering, or you can take it to the third, or some might call it the higher level, but it doesn't have to be. And that is that you dedicate a part of your life to a cause. And again, you're helping someone or something, but you've shifted to this point where I'm dedicating a part of my life to a particular cause and I see that I is part of helping. Someone or something in this world. And some people might come to believe that's why they were put here. And so I don't think you have to jump right to the purpose in life to get the benefit of this vitamin. You could start by helping, or you could move to the next level of volunteering. Or if you're ready to see what you do, at least part of your life, maybe even your work, it's dedicated to a cause, then you might be ready for committing yourself to a purpose in life.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Improving the condition or the well-being or alleviating the suffering or the decline of some group or some thing in this world that could be the environment or some aspect of the environment, that could be a group of people like for me I've been passionate about mental illness because of my own experience but helping others. And so you could start just by trying to help something or someone. The next level, if you want to take the next step up from just saying, I'm going to at least once a week go out and do something and dedicate a good amount of time or a little bit of time to helping, you could commit yourself to a social role that is volunteering. So you get involved in an organization or an institution and commit yourself to doing something regularly around.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, in some respects, I wish I hadn't just described that chapter as only about purpose because I don't think you need to have that larger purpose to benefit from what is an important ingredient of purpose. And that is committing to some activity where you are helping someone else or another group of people or helping something in this world. In other words, you're dedicating a little bit of your time.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't understand how or why. I can't dismiss that there was a creator or not, even as a scientist, I marvel at just the mysteries of some of the things we couldn't, we can't still can't figure out. Not even the greatest minds, Stephen Hawkins are outward Einstein as I write about, can understand that. And Ryan, I just think we've lost our sense of mystery and wonder. And for me, that's what spirituality always brings in, the idea that I can just sit back and say, Isn't this amazing?”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Our need for something to believe in and our need for putting our faith in something disappears. It just is this sense that somehow religion just doesn't seem like it belongs anymore because there's something about this idea of relying on something where You have No proof Somehow doesn't seem to fit in this wealthier fabric of life. And frankly, it's not like we don't go out seeking something to believe in. But even these conspiracy theories, I wonder sometimes, I think people feel like there's more proof and validity there than there is. But you brought up a point that makes me think about what I do, another thing I talk about in that chapter is I think Spirituality at least did for me, and even religion while I was practicing it. Made me welcome more mystery into my daily life. Sort of And be in awe and amazed at how this all works.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's an interesting point, Sophie. I think in these wealthier developed countries, there is this idea that we're encouraged to think that we don't need anything else to help us besides me and maybe my most immediate family. And I've seen this. If you see countries become wealthier, we lead behind the sense that we need each other to get through and get by. And what you see in countries among people that are less developed or poor is that the only way they get by is to help each other and get through, say, taking care of each other's children, getting things difficult times. But as we become wealthier, I think it's not like...”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so you could even be practicing a spiritual like ritual by practicing some forms of ancient philosophy that have been around hundreds of years that are still very popular. And the one I would recommend is picking up a book on Stoicism for everyday life if you're not religious or even spiritual.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right? I think those are can be considered a spiritual, even a religious practice. So I write it there, you don't have to be consider yourself a religious person to engage in rituals that are designed to help you become a better person. Shortly after I submitted my book, I was reading, my father-in-law sent me a book about Stoicism that he's reading. He's 89 years old and he's facing the end of life and he said these popularized books about the philosophy of Stoicism has been helping him become a better person in facing the challenges of aging and the end of life because they help him engage in practices that help him think about life and where he can control things and what he can control.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I do spend a good bit of time on that chapter talking about spirituality. And for me, and I think for other scholars, spirituality is the less formal or less institutionalized. Having said that, a lot of spiritual practices do come from well-formulated spiritual traditions such as Buddhism, which has been around for hundreds of years, of course. Whether you're into the institutional or the less institutional, the spiritual, what I talk about in that chapter is that almost anything that you believe is a ritual or a practice that's helping you become a better person for the world or for others and become less self-centered or egotistical.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The friend request. And so for me, the social media isn't about how many friends you have, it's do you have people that you would actually spend time with and would want to spend time with? So I think the first task is, I think we just let too many people into our lives that really, if we are honest with ourselves, they don't belong there because they're not good for us and we're not good for them. And we should be pickier about who we spend time with and who we let into our life on social media or even in the workplace.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. Well, I think it would be good to take a lesson from older adults who with age get pickier about who they let into their life and who they spend time with. And they prioritize emotionally warm and trusting relationships. And I think most of us in this day and age, because of the workplace and social media, let too many people into our life that really I don't think we should and we should be pickier about it. I'll give you an example. I don't spend a lot of time on social media platforms such as Facebook. But when I get a request to a friend or when I seek out a friend, I don't just accept anyone. If I don't have a good reason to connect with them, I don't. I don't accept.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What was remarkable is that going to the studio and practicing with a class, I started to notice, as is typical, there was the same people showing up for these particular classes at a certain time and day of the week. And before we knew it, we were connecting and some of us became friends, very good friends. And these are people that have a sort of similar philosophy and approach to life. And what you want to do is sort of go out in the world to those places where you think you're going to find people who sort of have the same philosophy of life. I like that word better than just having the same interest. Because it's a great way to connect with people who are on the same journey as you. And I think that's where most of us are going to find those kinds of quality relationships where there's warmth and trust.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know and I understand what it is to be busy, but I think work takes over our lives. And it's true, especially among people with more education and higher so-called status, higher status jobs, because those jobs on average, people are working 50 or more hours a week on average. So it's like a fire hose with the water coming out of fire hose. more work than time but the question is in a situation like that work will never end so you're going to have to find a way to prioritize those things in your life if you're saying you don't have the time for family and friends but if if family and friends aren't the place um the question is where can you find them and i for example found them by getting involved in yoga i practice yoga for over 25 years”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I was just reading a report by a consulting firm. I think it's global, so it's probably in the UK called Deloitte, and they do a lot of workplace surveys. And this one was in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. And what was surprising what stood out to me is that almost 50% of workers in those four countries say they don't have enough time for family or friends. I'm not saying that's where everyone's going to find their warm, trusting relationships, but for many of us, they're right there, but we don't have time for them. And that in and of itself, I think, is one opportunity for reclaiming some of the experience of warmth and trust that's already there waiting for you to connect with. Now, I...”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Synthesize. We learn and we do the equivalent of photosynthesis and take in what the world has for us and what we give back is this idea and this feeling of mastery and growth.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To grow and become better at doing it. And it's not because you want to showcase it for the world or use it in the workplace. It's good if you do, if you want to. But just for the sake of growing. And I love the idea of learning throughout adulthood because I think of human beings as just like we're just like anything else that's implanted on this earth. We're here to grow. And when we're not and when we're languishing, oh, I know what that feels like. Indeed, as I said earlier, it's like you're feeling like you're dying inside and you're stuck and stagnant. And learning just for the sake of becoming a better person or getting better at something is the epitome of, or not the epitome, but it is the example of what plants do that we can't do. Plants photos.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Choice. I can't believe I get to do this. And I think the idea is that as an adult, we don't learn something just because we want to learn it and that it, right? Or because it's not something we want to use in the marketplace, but we just want to become good at doing it. And it's a remarkable thing to just choose to learn something because you want to and because you want”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Most of learning in many of our societies is so concentrated at the beginning of life that it's all about preparing you for being useful in the work a day world. And I understand the need for that and I realize it's important. But it encourages us, I think, to see learning as something that we don't choose to do, but we have to do. And I can't tell you how many times as a college professor, I heard from my college students something I was rather sad. They had no choice that they were at college because they had to be here, there, and they didn't seem like they really wanted to be there necessarily, or the timing wasn't right. It was just something they were being forced to do. And I remember going to college, I didn't feel forced at all. I felt like, wow, this is the one.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How undoubtedly, and the way I end the book, It's deeply personal and it's a call. It's a call out to all of those people who are like me have been broken but aren't defeated. I think most of us have some brokenness in our life and Often I think about what the Japanese do it's called kinsugi. I think I got the right word, but what they do is with valuable belongings that break, they put them together with precious metals that show the cracks, right? But they put them together in ways that honor the brokenness. Display to the world that you can still be useful in seen and tell your story, and I want more people who feel like they were like me at times a lost soul. Come with me and find our way home. That's why I describe flourishing as the North Star for me. It always guides me back to where I need to be because it keeps me in recovery.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And tried to heal because I thought I could outrun it, Sophie. That I could out success my past. I wouldn't have to deal with it. But it caught up with me and it was always in my rearview mirror. So once I dealt with it, the black and blue went away, and it's not as sensitive to the touch anymore. And I talk about that because if for those of you who have deep pain from your past and you want to flourish, What I've found is that you can't ignore the pain of the past because you carry it with you. And it will derail you on your journey to flourishing as it did to me many times. And now that I'm healing and I spend a lot more time in that place called flourishing.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I won't pretend to know some of these mysteries of why I really don't know where that fierceness came from. I just knew it was there and that I was determined that What had happened to me and my sister would not define our life, that what was taken from us the people we could have become in a loving Was not going to be the last word on our journey. And it suffices to say I'm still working on healing the damage from that. In fact, every Thursday this afternoon, I will go visit my trauma therapist. It's a lifelong... Journey that I think many of us who have experienced severe trauma have to undergo. But the way I describe it is for most of my life, I was black and blue and literally and figuratively and very sensitive to the touch. And until I faced down my past,”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To the foreground. And so suddenly, just because I was free of all the negative didn't mean I was flourishing. I had a wonderful environment and I tasted it. And that's where the seeds, as I say in my dedication, my grandparents gave me the seeds of flourishing. That's where it was sown. But I knew the absence of a negative didn't mean the presence of the positive. And that's my personal story was then a lifelong journey of not only the scholarship of trying to see what would good mental health really look like and what was this condition called languishing, but it was a very personal search for my own answers to the fact that there had to be something more to life than just the absence of the negative.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I experienced two versions of childhood. The first version up to the age of 11 was nothing short of hell. And I experienced a lot of violence and abuse. And suddenly I was transplanted and thankfully adopted by my grandparents into a very different home. And suddenly the absence of the negative was gone. There was the absence of a negative, but I didn't suddenly get catapulted into mental health. I spent a good amount of my early life in and out of languishing and I talk about that experience of when I would let down all the activity that I was doing and how I was doing well in school and very active. All of a sudden this fog, this emptiness, this void of come”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. Bro, in one respect, it gave me what I would call a fierce determination to show that there was good in the world and that I had something to contribute and that people like me not only belonged but also had gifts to give to the world. It was almost like I talk about having a chip on my shoulder that when the world is sending you the message that you don't belong or you're not good enough, it would motivate me even more to show them they were wrong. I didn't say I was. I was going to go prove them wrong. And I also thought that this sole focus in our scholarship on illness didn't characterize the human condition and the nuances of life well enough.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It makes you feel good, but it's not nutritious. It lacks substance. And I hate to sound judgmental in this regard, but I think we can find a lot of ways to feel good that has nothing to do with doing well or being good, right? There are simply too many quick fixes in this world, and I don't think flourishing is about quick fixes.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I also talk about this in terms of that conserved transcriptional response to adversity, which is a set of genes that get activated when we experience high demands and adversity, which aren't good because it increases inflammation and it decreases antibody production. The feeling good stuff has nothing to do. It doesn't modulate the CTRA at all. But having high levels of functioning well, psychological and social well-being dampens the CTRA when we are experiencing adversity. It prevents it from being turned on too much. I could go on. Frankly, I'm tired of people saying let's talk about positive emotions. It's the antidote to everything. My argument is when you feel good and it's not tethered to meaning and mattering and belonging and acceptance. It's like eating a diet of Cheetos or junk.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the feeling good? It wasn't the feeling good stuff. It was the functioning well, especially psychological well-being. People who had higher levels of psychological well-being at all ages. Male or female were less likely to die prematurely. Feeling good had nothing to do with it. But it did if I only looked, if I only looked at the feeling good, yes. But as soon as I brought functioning well in it, it wiped out the feeling good stuff.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's because we seem to want really quick fixes and we want these kinds of fixes that we can fit in our busy life. We want to do it within 10 minutes, right? So we want to sit down and practice gratitude. We want to sit down and practice a little mindfulness. We want to sit down and engage in some hopeful thinking. Again, nothing wrong with that. But I don't believe that that's the way in which you're going to get meaning in life. Meaning in life doesn't come from sitting alone doing a little change of thought. It comes from engaging in the world and your community with other human beings. And so I could go on. There's even more research that shows that just feeling good is simply not enough. I showed that when I did the study on mortality, right, it flourishing prevents premature mortality. But when you take the pieces apart, the functioning”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Country that they really think the feeling good stuff is far more important than functioning well. And here's the problem. 22% of college students meet the criteria for flourishing in terms of happiness or feeling good, but they're languishing in terms of functioning well. They have three times the rate of mental illnesses like depression, also much higher rates of suicidality than the young people who put the combination of functionality.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mental health. And then I asked every young student, a college student, how important is that particular facet to you and your life? So for instance, the question about happiness, right? So how important is that to you in your future life? The questions about, say, purpose, how important is that? Or social well-being? How important is it that you contribute things of worth and value? It was clear that feeling good stuff was in first place. It got the gold medal, the psychological well-being fell in second place, things like acceptance of yourself, purpose, warm, trusting relationships, and social well-being was ranked the least important, belonging to contribution, making sense of the world, and accepting other people. It was clear our young people in those states, and I suspect they're not different from the young people in New York.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In one respect, I could describe my book as I'm not interested whether you're happy. There's been enough books on happiness and the feeling good. And I have to be honest, I don't think positive psychology really cared for the first 20 years about mental health. And they focused on feeling good or character strengths. And there's still, you know, there's a place for that. I don't get me wrong. But I have evidence that I review in the book. It shows that if all you do is promote happiness without focusing on the signs of functioning well, you do not get the benefits that I talk about when it goes to flourishing. So for instance, I did publish this. I write about it in the book. But in one study, I took all of 14 questions that I use to measure the presence and absence of good.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“More of the mental illness that's right. We're lamenting. There's just too much of it. And so I'm convinced we cannot make a difference in the world with the crisis of mental illness if we don't deal with the absence of mental health and the loss of good mental health”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Now, there's nothing wrong with that. And I'm not saying that's not necessary, but that seems to be what we do. And we think we're going to make progress by providing more treatment for growing need. And my approach is let's promote good mental health because it prevents a lot of things like depression and anxiety. And so if we could be treating or responding, let me use a better word. We could be responding to a slippery slope, which is as you move away from good mental health, which I call flourishing, and you start to languish, the more severely you languish, the greater your risk of becoming Metzl, among other things. And so if we responded to the earliest losses of good mental health, we could, I'm convinced,”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, without a doubt. In fact, one of my passions in doing this research was to try to think of a different way to go about dealing with the crisis of mental illness. And we have to admit, I think I keep reading, and I suspect you do in the UK here in the States, I read articles again and again that the crisis of mental illness keeps growing. And now it's really affecting our high school students. And just to give you an example of our approach, because I think we're stuck. We keep doing the same thing and thinking things will get different. So there's not enough people to treat all of our teenagers. And so the article was about trying to encourage more people to go into this profession to get the skills necessary to treat more of our teens with mental illness.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Indeed, in fact, I remember coming across some research by some Spanish colleagues where they were the first to pioneer this idea of postpartum languishing. And I think that's a really important direction for research because I think we know postpartum depression. But postpartum languishing is far more common and it's associated with a deficit in maternal confidence. It's strongly linked, even more strongly than postpartum depression. And when mothers are languishing postpartum, I mean, to lack that kind of confidence, to be a good mother must be very, very difficult. And so it's amazing to me where it shows up. It seems to be everywhere.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's life for a lot of people. And my hope is as we've returned back to so-called normal or something close to normal, that people with privilege, power, and opportunity to help change this and make a difference and move the needle towards addressing language, don't forget. It's like And help make this a movement so that we can begin to promote flourishing and prevent languishing and all of the other things that come from languishing.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“By that I mean it didn't matter whether you are rich or poor, educated or not, lived in a so-called developed country or less developed or wealthy or poorer country. COVID didn't discriminate. And when the lockdown happened, it happened for almost all of us. And when we were quarantined, it was literally like our arteries into our life outside were cut. And so everything that we took for granted that for some people that was feeding their flourishing, it was taken from them. But I think it represents an opportunity. I think people who usually didn't experience languishing, that was people who tend to be at the higher levels of the SES were suddenly experiencing what a lot of people ordinarily experience, which is that things that would contribute to their”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Before I get specifically to your question, it was there before the pandemic. And in a way, that was quite profound because we were seeing languishing at some levels of 40 to 50 percent of some groups before the pandemic. And I think it became a global phenomenon during the pandemic because COVID was a great equalizer.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You don't feel either happy, satisfied, or interested in life. And it's that constellation of things that's a deficit that where you pass that threshold, it seems to really classify people into a category where they are simply not doing well in life.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And while I understand, I think we like to reduce things down to one word. I think another term is blah. Or meh, but I really don't think that does it justice because I think people will think of those two terms and just think, well, I've been exposed to three or four rainy days. It's been cloudy and yada, yada, right? It's nothing like that. When you're languishing, there's actually a formal diagnosis. And to languish, you have to have the absence of six or more of the signs of functioning well. Like you don't feel much purpose in your life, like your life has direction or meaning. You don't feel you belong to a community. You don't feel integrated. You don't feel that you have warm and trusting relationships. I'm just giving you examples that you might feel that you don't have a lot to contribute to the world or your community. You lack confidence that they can express your ideas and you're not being challenged to grow as a person. And on top of that,”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, when they talk about it, sometimes they will talk about feeling dead inside or dying inside. And I write about that in the book. That is often associated with what I describe and other scholars describe as demoralization. When you're living a life where you're not living your values. Another way people talk about it is they feel lost, like a lost soul. That's a common phrase. And of course, people often talk about feeling empty. And the emptiness comes from the fact that they don't feel much of a positive set of positive emotions. They don't feel really anything good, but they don't feel anything really bad or negative. It's neither. So they're kind of numb. And that's another description that they often will use.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, in fact, in the measurement of languishing and flourishing, there's only one question that is in common with the way psychiatrist diagnose depression, and that's the question about interest in life. The rest is almost diametrically opposed where depression is about the presence of negative symptoms. Languishing is the absence of what I would call positive symptoms or well-being. And I would describe languishing as being mentally unhealthy. And in the same way that when you are, I would say, practicing or actually engaging in physically unhealthy behaviors, you become physically ill if you practice those physically unhealthy habits too long. Languishing is a state of being mentally unhealthy that if you stay there too long, you often slide into mental illness. So another way to put it is it's the absence of good mental health.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hello and welcome to Intelligence Squared, where Great Minds Meet. I'm head of programming, Conor Boyle. On the podcast today, we're exploring the state of mind of when we're feeling a little bit neither here nor there. We've all been there, that headspace, when we know something's missing, but we can't quite say what. Many might simply term it feeling a bit meh. Well, there is a better name for that state of mind, and it's been written about in detail by the sociologist Dr. Corey Keys. He calls it languishing, which is the subject of his new book. Throughout Corey's influential career, he's advised organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, various global government agencies, and the World Happiness Forum. Let's hear more from our host for this discussion, Sophie McBain. Sophie's contributing editor at the New Statesman magazine, and writes about books and ideas for The Guardian and the Sunday Times.”
2024-02-26 · Intelligence Squared · Stuck in the Middle? Sociologist Corey Keyes on the Condition of Languishing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT