The Connection with Marty Moss-Coane

Human beings are built for sleep. It’s a normal, natural process and yet many of us have a troubled relationship with it. This Friday on The Connection — how to make sleep your friend. We’ll dive into the fascinating physiology of sleep and explore what our brains and bodies are doing during these “off” hours. We’ll discuss how sleep affects our memories and mood, how our daily activities affect our sleep cycles and what we can do to get restorative shut eye. And we’ll also dispel some myths…does everyone needs 8 hours a night? Our guests are Duke University sleep medicine specialist Jade Wu, author of Hello Sleep, and Penn Medicine sleep specialist Indira Gurubhagavatula.

A good conversation can immediately connect you with another person, make you feel bonded to them, and bridge divides. But some people are better talkers than others. Journalist and author Charles Duhigg calls them ‘supercommunicators’ and he’s written a new book looking at the power of conversation. In Supercommunicators, Duhigg pulls on neuroscience and psychology to explain the different types of conversation and how we can all learn to be better talkers and listeners.

As drug overdose deaths continue to rise, we look at addiction and new ideas around treatment and recovery with neuroscience journalist Maia Szalavitz. Szalavitz recovered from an addiction and she shares her insights from her experience and the latest thinking on harm reduction and substance use disorder treatment.

Why do we feel a romantic connection with one person over another? Why do mothers so quickly bond with their newborn babies? Why do we feel so much for our pets? This hour, we explore the science of attachment with psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Amir Levine. Levine is the author of Attached, which, a decade later is still a wildly popular book. He’ll explain the different attachment styles, what goes on in our brains when we feel that connection, and ways to strengthen our own relationships.

In 2010, then NPR host Michele Norris started “The Race Card Project.” Looking for honest conversations on race and identity, she left postcards wherever she went with the prompt “Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send.” She got half a million response over 12 years, including You’re Pretty for a Black girl. White privilege, enjoy it, earned it. Lady, I don’t want your purse. Urban living has made me racist. I’m only Asian when it’s convenient. In her new book, Our Hidden Conversations, Norris reveals what Americans told her and the conversations on race, racism and identity that followed.

In More: A Memoir of Open Marriage, writer Molly Roden Winter chronicles the ups and downs of non-monogamy as a wife and working mother. We’ll talk with Roden Winter and her husband Stewart Winter about why they opened their marriage, some of the hurdles of polyamory, what they have learned about themselves and their 24-year marriage.

A growing number of Americans are living single – some by choice and others because they simply can’t find the right partner. We’re talking about embracing the single lifestyle and getting rid of the stigma attached to it. We’ll hear from two proponents who’ve found fulfilling, rich and purposeful lives without being in a traditional relationship. Peter McGraw, professor at the University of Colorado – Boulder, is the author of Solo, and Kris Marsh, professor at the University of Maryland, is the author of The Love Jones Cohort: Single and Living Alone in the Black Middle Class.

Authoritarianism is on the rise around the globe, the appeal spreading to even American voters. We’ll talk with Georgetown University professor Fathali Mogahddam, who grew up under a dictatorship, about why people are drawn to authoritarian leaders and how to break the spell. Also in the hour, the concept of authoritative parenting. We’ll talk about different parenting philosophies and how they influence children with Oberlin College professor of psychology Nancy Darling.

Physician Jeremy Nobel says loneliness is “the most human of feelings and a call to creative self-expression and connection.” His organization, The Foundation for Art and Healing, uses the arts to reconnect us with ourselves and other people. We’ll talk to Nobel about the power of creativity and about his new book, Project Unlonely. We’ll also look at music therapy as medicine. Whether playing an instrument, singing a song or listening to a favorite piece, music therapist Joke Bradt has found music can reduce pain among cancer patients and rebuild connections. She is the director of the Music, Creativity and Wellness Lab at Drexel University.

Ross Gay gave himself an assignment: notice something that gave him delight, write about it quickly and in longhand, every day for a year. His new book, The Book of (More) Delights is about paying attention to the world around him and being attuned to joy and gratitude. It’s a sequel to his bestselling The Book of Delights. Ross Gay joins us to talk about the connection between joy and sorrow, which he compares to the underground fungal networks of the forest. Gay teaches writing at Indiana University and grew up in Bucks County, a diehard fan of the 76ers. So we’ll also talk about his book length poem, Be Holding, an ode to Dr. J’s gravity-defying layup. [originally aired September 22]