The research for our “Resilience Stories” project began with an investigation into presenting psychological information with a focus on psychological resilience and positive emotions. Me and my partner, Formosa Huang, began listening to podcasts and watching webinars from noted psychologists, including and especially Dr. Laurie Santos, creator of Yale’s most popular undergraduate course: The Science of Wellbeing. 

After seeing and hearing different ways of presenting information, we decided an interview format was most effective in terms of being engaging and fun to listen to. And after conducting a few practice interviews, we also decided we wanted to include aspects of practical resilience, or little habits and tricks we all can do to boost positive emotions and increase our resilience. Our idea culminated in a podcast that was also recorded on video, and would primarily contain an interview, either with someone who had a specific “resilience story” or someone who did not. Our goal was to find the everyday stories of resilience that we all have, whether we know it or not, and peel back the curtain as to the psychology and positive emotions being knowingly or unknowingly utilized by the interviewee. 

The final format for the podcast being presented is a short interview followed by a brief but deep dive into some of the research that has been done regarding the psychological benefits of the emotions being discussed in the podcast. In our sample interview with Formosa’s friend Bridget, the primary positive emotion is social connection and we look at research from social psychologist Dr. Nicholas Epley.