9. Why Is It So Hard to Be Alone With Our Thoughts?

Thor, you've got twenty sharpened sticks leaning against the wall. Why do you need another one? I'm Angela Duckworth. I'm Steven Dubner. And you're listening to no stupid questions. Today on the show. How often do you sit with your thoughts without any other form of stimulation?

You're just supposed to lie there on your mat with your own thoughts. I fell asleep many times. Also How much influence do parents have over their children once they've hit adolescence? They say, your kids said this to me, it was such a thoughtful, considerate thing to say, and I'm like, my kid said that? Who? What? Angela, let me ask you this. How comfortable are you being alone with your thoughts for an extended period of time?

I guess it depends on how extended you mean, but I can go for Hours at least. Not reading, not on your phone not talking to anyone, just With your thoughts. Just with my thoughts. Yeah. I would say hours. And by the way, I might be vastly overestimating if you ask me when's the last time I sat in a room by myself. When's the last time you sat in a room by yourself with your own thoughts for many hours? I would say that the time that this happens to me most often is when I am going to get out of bed in the morning and I find myself lying there thinking. And I think for that sort of activity it's probably more like twenty minutes. Okay. Not three hours, but still something substantial.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (34 minutes, 6,145 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.