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The Next Big Idea · 2026-01-29 · 51 min · 8,507 words

Does "Mattering" Explain Everything?

Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Why times can differ in your player

I'm Rufus Grisscom, and I'm Caleb Bissinger. And this is the next big idea. Today, the word that explains why we're lonely, anxious, and disengaged. Think about your Basic needs, food, shelter, safety.

What if there's another, one you've overlooked, one we never talk about? Mattering. Feeling valued by the people around you and knowing that you make a difference. It used to be baked into daily life. You knew your neighbors, you helped each other out.

You probably belonged to a religious community. You worked at a company that rewarded your loyalty with a pension, maybe a gold watch. These ecosystems, if you will, of mattering have eroded. Jennifer Wallace is the author of the new book Mattering, published this week, and she believes this erosion explains a lot of what ails us. to feel like we don't matter.

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