Rarely do we actually stop to think about the qualities of a good listener. In today’s episode, we’ll be doing a crash course on the concept of active listening and how you can apply it to your everyday life.

Why does misery love company? Today we explore the meaning behind the popular phrase and what it actually means. Why do we seek others out when we're sad? Is it rooted in connection or something darker?

What makes some people the ultimate human connector? Today we take a look at Malala Yousafzai - a Pakistani activist for women's education rights. In the podcast, we explore her story as well as what makes her a catalyst for connection at a large scale.

Bill Bernat is a TED speaker and author (Talkward: The Joy of Connecting With Coworkers About Depression and Anxiety) who is focused on helping create more moments of happiness that occur when people connect. Matt and Bill discuss how people with mental health illnesses communicate with each other, how we can build relationships with them and talks a bit about their community.

Donovan Beck is the owner of The Mind of Sol Media and he brings light to the creative industry and how art and film are rooted in human connection. In film, he mentions how creatives have an incredible ability to develop feelings of empathy within an audience, how filmmakers use little everyday things people don't think about to increase relatability, and more.

Imagine not having anyone that could truly understand what you were going through for 7 years. Carley Gordon tells the story of her battle with Hyeperadrenergic POTS, and how she maintained connections and found her tribe. Carley also provides insights into the cracks of connection in healthcare and how she's helping bring the human into care coordination as the founder of Peony Healthcare Coordination.

Matt gives an honest and transparent update of what's going on behind the scenes and what you can expect from the podcast moving forward.

Celeste Headlee, the author of two books, viral Ted X talker, and PBS show host, discusses interesting themes of human connection as she ties it back to our primal needs of conversation. We dive into themes of connection during and after the pandemic and find ways we can be better at conversation and listening.

Ted X Speaker and former radio co-host of one of the most popular UAE stations discusses how she was able to enable feelings of connection in millions of listeners without ever seeing them. In this episode, we discuss Malavika Varadan's lessons learned as a premier radio host, how she creates connections and themes interesting topics like having fans believe that they truly know her without ever meeting her.

Forgetting a name is one of the worst things you can do when building a new relationship. Not only does this tell the other person they're a "zero" it breaks down the connection between two people. In this episode, Matt discusses the power that someone's name can hold and he goes over some tips and tricks to help us remember names.