JF BROSSCHOT

JF BROSSCHOT

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Professor of Health Psychology on Psychophysiological Mechanisms of Stress in Daily Life · Leiden University

So social animals need to be connected. Lonely animals show chronic stress responses and die earlier if these needs are not met. Now, what are our concrete, non-negotiable needs? How many friends are enough to keep our default stress response down? Our social media needs, the need to talk, touch, and so on? And what physical spaces do we exactly need? How much nature do we need to be in? Stress science needs to stop studying stressors and focus on what we need to be healthy. Finally, this is not only health. It reduces our general performance, our cognitive flexibility, our creativity and exploration, our mood, and our libido.

JOY GORMAN WETTELS

JOY GORMAN WETTELS

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Award-winning Executive Producer of UnPrisoned starring Kerry Washington & Delroy Lindo
13 Reasons Why · Home Before Dark · Eyes on the Prize: Hallowed Ground
Founder of Joy Coalition

With UnPrisoned and with really my whole body of work as a producer, I'm really drawn to stories that make people feel seen that take issues that have stigma and shame attached to them, and making those issues just more palatable and more human. And few people realize that 50% of American families are touched by incarceration. And when you meet someone like Tracy McMillan, who really is a miracle, this is a woman who's now in her fifties who grew up in 22 different foster homes because her father was incarcerated when she was so little. And yet for all of his mistakes, the fact that he was a career criminal, he still, when he could change her diapers, he was present when he could be there. He braided her hair, and there was real love there. But they were separated not only by his mistakes, but by a system that is really unforgiving and really unfair, especially to black and brown men. So, the idea that we could tell a story where a young woman who was raised that way and by that person turns out to be Kerry Washington. You know, turns out to be somebody who you want to be, turns out to be "Olivia Pope", this woman that we all see as so beautiful and such a hero and so strong and so powerful, I felt was just an incredible opportunity. And when we first put Tracy and Kerry in the same room, Kerry said to Tracy, "You know you're a miracle, right?"