Stories of Impact brings back some of our favorite conversations this season. Today we revisit an episode from our first season, aired during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. David Sloan Wilson is a biological sciences researcher at Binghamton University, and he explains what actually makes teamwork dream work, how cultures engender or discourage cooperation, and how to get people from different backgrounds to cooperate during times of crisis.

Learn more about David Sloan Wilson and the Evolution Institute.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Elinor Ostrom
• Michelle Gelfand's Tight and Loose Cultures
• Robert Putnuam's Bowling Alone
  
  
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• Supported by the​ Templeton World Charity Foundation

Stories of Impact brings back some of our favorite conversations this season. In our last episode, we heard about the positive effects of coming together and sharing a meal. But for millions of Americans, that rarely happens. In fact, some 20 million people in the US today say they don't have any friends. So how do we solve this loneliness epidemic? Today, we revisit a conversation with Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas, who studies just that.

Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas is the Science Director at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, which tracks cutting edge research studies that focus on how important our relationships, our tendency towards generosity and cooperation, and our sense of mattering or contribution to our communities are to our health and wellbeing over the course of our lives. She wants to understand the science of loneliness.

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• Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

Today we're back in conversation with Dr. Adam Cohen, social psychologist and psychologist of religion at Arizona State University, who shares another research project that explores the way religious ritual connects participants more deeply not only with faith, but with community — this time, not through the practice of abstaining from food, but from breaking bread together.

Dr. Arielle Levites, Managing Director of the Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education and a Research Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at George Washington University had the same idea — that observing Shabbat wasn't just a nice idea, it was a practice with measurable impact.

So the team designed a study, enlisting the participation of Aliza Kline, founding President and then-CEO of OneTable, an organization designed to help young Jews develop independence and confidence in observing the ritual of Shabbat dinner in their homes.

The question they wanted to answer? Does Shabbat dinner as a spiritual practice increase social connectedness?

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Learn more about the research
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Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org

Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation