The Mattering Instinct (with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein)
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Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.
We'd love to hear from you. Today is December 3rd, 2025, and my guest is philosopher and author Rebecca Neuberger-Goldstein. Her latest book and the subject of today's episode is The Mattering Instinct. how our deepest longing drives us and divides us. Rebecca, welcome to Econ Talk.
It's a pleasure to be here. So what is the mattering instinct? What does that mean? Yes, so uh it is just longing to matter. Uh it is a longing uh that I think makes our
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