TEDxUCLA Salon

Our brain is a natural storyteller, and through storytelling, it’s possible for us to strengthen executive function and well-being and foster connection. Studies related to this suggest the number one thing we can do to feel happier is engage in social connection. Specifically, being open to connecting with strangers and aiming to go deeper during conversation.

Building on these ideas as well as Dr. Matthew Farrell and Dr. Puja Venkat’s narrative writing workshop for medical students—where medical students who previously had their education experience impacted by COVID wrote and shared pivotal personal experiences—we crafted this salon session, Let’s Get Awkward to Get More Connected, that endeavors to explore and test these theories on story and connection while simultaneously humanizing those who heal.

In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a statement regarding all-time high levels of loneliness and isolation in the United States. What if we put our Featured Poet Bruce Springsteen’s artistic repairmen idea into practice? What if, through sharing stories, we were able to not only heal parts of ourselves, but also others? What if harnessing stories made us better practitioners through our increased ability to listen and connect? What if storytelling can help us become Springsteen’s repairmen—to make healers out of all of us?

On Saturday, October 19, 2024, at a first of its kind event for the UCLA Health and the JCCC, we explored this compelling, story-steeped intersection of art and science through our first TEDx Salon, Let’s Get Awkward to Get More Connected: Humanizing Those Who Heal.