May 22, 2023 • 32 mins
Not matter if you're aged three or 103, you can learn to be happier using pretty much the same strategies. Sesame Workshop and its furry friends have been teaching "emotional ABCs" alongside literacy and numeracy for decades. So in collaboration with The Happiness Lab, Elmo and his friends will be helping us present fun and accessible happiness hacks for listeners of all ages.
To kick things off, Dr Laurie Santos sat down to discuss why it's never too early to learn about wellbeing with Sesame Workshop's CEO, Steve Youngwood; the Chief Production and Creative Development Officer, Kay Wilson Stallings… and everyone’s favorite furry, red monster, Elmo.
(Sesame Workshop is a non-profit organization with a mission to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. The work they do is funded by donations big and small - so if you want to become a part of their important mission to improve children’s emotional well-being, then visit: sesameworkshop.org/support-us/)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin, did you ever hear of a happiness hack or
well being strategy on this show? And think, gee, I
wish I learned that one years ago. It's certainly never
too late to discover the lessons that the science of
happiness has to offer. I know from your emails that
some of you listening right now are in your sixth, seventh,
(00:37):
and even eighth decades, and that you still feel that
you learn a ton from what we talk about on
the Happiness Lab. But there's also a growing movement arguing
that it's never too early to start mastering these happiness hacks.
The very things that science shows can make grown adults flourish,
practices like mindfulness, gratitude, or being sociable and other oriented.
All of these are habits that can boost well being
(00:58):
in younger minds too, And that's the reason that I
got started teaching happiness in the first place. The students
who take my Science of well Being class are incredibly smart,
but also surprisingly anxious and unhappy young adult. I think
my class helps, but I wish that my students could
have learned all the strategies I teach long before they
entered college. That's why I recently launched a free course
(01:18):
for adolescents called The Science of Well Being for Teens,
which you can find on YouTube or.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
On Coursera dot org.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But we shouldn't just begin taking care of our emotional
health in middle school either. We should be getting this
knowledge to kids even earlier. So how can we get
children to start investing in their happiness as soon as
they start learning their abcs and how to count?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Oh, I've had that the norm?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well that's a little clue because the experts that you'll
hear from in this episode are the amazing people at
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that's behind Sesame Street, which has
helped teach generation after generation of children literacy, numeracy, and yes,
social emotional skills. Grover Big Bird and all the human
residents of Sesame Street.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
You've forgot the Alma, But that's okay.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Sorry, Grover Big Bird. Elmo and the team have a
track record in getting vital educational messages out not only
to young viewers, but also to the people watching alongside them,
whether that's parents, caregivers, grandparents, older siblings, or teachers, and
recent work has begun to show that with the right
characters and stories, we can teach children's strategies for protecting
(02:21):
their well being even in really difficult times. Take for example,
some new research coming out of NYU. They tested the
improvements that preschool children showed after watching Alan Simpson, which
is the Arabic version of Sesame Street that Sesame Workshop
created in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee and a
generous grant from the MacArthur Foundation. The research showed that
(02:43):
after watching the show, young viewers and crisis affected areas
were more able to successfully identify their emotions and to
apply a simple coping strategy. As a result, watching the
show had taught these kids the emotional abcs they needed
even in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis. So
when an opportunity came along to collaborate with Sesame Workshop
(03:03):
and their ongoing efforts to teach well being fundamentals, you
better believe I jumped at it. Later in the year,
will be bringing you a special season of shows featuring
not only all of your furry friends from Sesame Street,
but also the many experts from Sesame Workshop who craft
the content that so playfully teaches viewers such important lessons.
But this new series won't just be for kids or
(03:25):
just for parents or caregivers of a kid. Whether you're
aged three or one hundred and three, you'll still hear
new things about the science of happiness, just with a
little added Sesame Workshop furry fun. And To kick off
the collaboration, I took part in a live event at
the Arizona State University and Global Silicon Valley Summit, a
massive conference for educators which was held in San Diego
(03:46):
in April. At the summit, I had a chance to
interview three of the key players at Sesame Workshop, their
CEO Steve Youngwood, the Chief Production and Creative Development Officer,
Kay Wilson Stallings, and everyone's favorite furry red monster Elmo.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So welcome.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Today, we're going to be talking about things that we
can be doing to lay the foundation to help our
young people as emotionally as mentally healthy as they possibly can.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I'm Laurie Santos.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I'm a professor of psychology at Yale and host of
the Happiness Lab podcast. I spend a lot of my
time thinking about how we can help mental health at
the level of higher ed in my college students. But
lately I've been feeling like my job would be a
lot easier if I didn't have to wait until students
got to college to start thinking about their emotional health.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
We're going to be talking about how we can lay
the foundation of children's emotional health as early as possible,
and how the media can really help with that. This
is going to be the first in a whole series
of conversations that we're doing as part of my podcast
with experts on how we can teach children using the media.
And that is why I have my fantastic other panelists
and guests here today. The Happiness Lab is so excited
(04:54):
to be partnering with Sesame Workshop and to toast it off,
I'm going to turn it over to Steve and Ka
to introduce themselves.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
I am the CEO of Sesme Workshop and we're most
known obviously for Sesame Street, you know, which you know
has joy but also sort of like touched kids and
families for over fifty plus years around the world.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
You know, at a bit of a higher level.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
As we kind of look at our vision going forward,
you know, it's really to empower that next generation to
build what we hope is a better place, and you know,
We do it by trying to be a child's most
trusted friend, trying to be a caregiver's valued partner, and
you know, we try to create as a global impact
organization these experiences that enrich minds and in large hearts.
(05:41):
We focus on early childhood because we do believe that
is where you can have the greatest long term impact
of building a foundation. And we do it by entertaining kids,
but not as an end in itself. It's really about
as a means to an end of educating them and
addressing the most pressing issues, which is why we're so
excited to be with Laurie here. Emotional well being is
clearly a pressing issue for a society for adults, for parents,
(06:04):
for children. And it's funny, you know, Laurie is excited
working with us because it's like she I was older,
and what can you learn from younger?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
To me, it's.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Almost like it's more like, Wow, if we can see
where their problems are better understand them later, we can
sort of backward engineer and have a more impactful program.
So I'm excited for the conversation. I'm excited where this
relationship will go, and I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 6 (06:25):
It's okay, Hi, my first time here, and I'm very
excited to be here as well, and excited to share
with you what we're doing at the workshop to engage
in this work and to have the greatest impact possible.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And so I wanted to start with the state of
where we're at right now, you know, because this is
a big focus on children's mental health, and so Steve,
you know, talk to me about some of the statistics
about where things are and how are you trying to
elevate your work on mental health with kids through Sesame workshop.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
So from the beginning, we've always taken a whole child's
curriculum approach, and emotional well being is part of it.
But clearly we're in a different moment now, which is
why we're having taking a different you know, focus on it,
following COVID and a lot of other.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Things that are going on.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
And it's both the different moment in terms of how
kids are sort of experiencing, but also a different moment
in terms of where it is in the conversation in society.
We're particularly focused because there's a lot of attention on
older audiences teens and college students and it's often the
younger kids, who we believe are the most important, that
don't get talked about. If you look at this generation
(07:32):
of three to five year olds, they were born into
COVID and I was just with some preschoolers and researchers
and he's talking about the real, tangible, obvious like implications
that they grew up with anxious households. They grew up
with masks and so you see this in as they
can't read facial expressions as well. They grew up with
(07:52):
a closed community and some of their sort of verbal
development it is slowed down. And those are real things
that we don't know how but inevitably that they will
have impact. But then you look at the parents, it's
different now, it's less stigmatized. They're bringing more kids to
mental health facilities. Percent of them now leave. It's a
major issue for early child at eighty percent of them
believe that media can help. So we're at a moment
(08:16):
where the issue is bigger, the conversation is more open,
and you know, it is a time for us to
put a more sort of pointed focus on it as
we hope help the kids today. But we always say
it's also it's the foundation. So if you can build
the habits today, you can make a difference in the future.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And I think this is something where Sesame really can
play a very critical role because this is not the
first time that Sesame Workshop has had to step in
when kids were facing some kind of crisis. You know,
give me a sense of the history of this and
the fact that Sesame has done this a lot in
the past.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Yeah, you know, while we have the history of it
was founded to get kids ready for kindergarten. You have
your curriculum, and then there's the moments you need to
meet and it's in our DNA. You know, there was
a seminal thing that at least those from the US
may remembers.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
In the early eighties, we had a.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Character mister Hooper, played by He passed away in real life,
and you know, as opposed to writing him off, having
him moved to California or something, one decided that, Okay,
here was a moment to teach kids and give families
the tools of something that unfortunately everyone will experience, which
is a loss of a loved one. So we did
(09:29):
the research. We created an episode really focusing on the
fact that Okay, it's Okay, to be sad. Death means
they're not coming back, but you'll still have the memories.
And we felt that was important for the kids, and
we felt that was important for caregivers. You know, more
recently during COVID and there's also the tragic murder of
(09:49):
George Floyd. We again pivoted from some things and said,
let's meet that moment. There are questions that families have,
there are emotions that kids are going through, there are
conversations that people don't not to have. We can use
our relationship, we can use our various partners, and we
can use our expertise to address it because it was needed.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
In the moment.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
The emotional wellbeing is an ongoing thing, but it's another
moment that we think we need to meet.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And so as we've talked more about the kinds of
ways that we're going to meet this important moment. Okay,
I know you've brought up that Sesame workshop often takes
this full spectrum approach to thinking about skills building and
also thinking about kids' emotional health. So what do you
mean by this full spectrum approach?
Speaker 6 (10:31):
So when we're thinking about emotional wellbeing and children, we're
talking about the way they think and feel about themselves
and the experiences they have as they encounter the world
around them. And we know that children need to have
a healthy mental state in order to thrive, in order
to develop a compassionate mindset, in order to have joyous moments,
(10:52):
and to develop physically, emotionally, and socially. And so when
we look at mental wellness and emotional wellbeing, we're looking
at the complete spectrum of those everyday joyous moments, helping
children to recognize and explain their emotions, and then also
helping parents to recognize when there might be some really
(11:15):
serious emotional challenges that their children are dealing with.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And so I think as we think about this full
spectrum approach, there's this question about, Okay, what are the
specific kinds of things we can build into that, and
where are the spots where media can can be especially helpful.
And one of the domains I think where media can
be really useful is in trying to explain very tricky concepts, right,
you know, I teach a class at Yale University, like
an Ivy League school about some of these scientific practices
(11:39):
that build well being. But there's a question about how
we can boil down some of these like scientific notions
in a way that kids can really understand, and just
to kind of give one concrete example which I think
will be helpful. One of the things we've talked about
in our curriculum development is ways to teach kids that
emotions change, and that negative emotions are normative, right, Like,
sometimes we're just going to be upset or sad or
(12:01):
anxious or frustrated or whatever it is, and that kind
of thing is normal.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
This is a hard concept for adults to get, right,
but it can be especially hard for children. And one
of the things we've talked about in our curriculum is, like, Okay,
what's an analogy we can use that kids would get
about something that's changing doesn't feel good, but you know,
sometimes you have to put up with it. And we thought, oh,
you know the weather, you know, sunny days.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
The idea is we can teach kids that, you know,
sometimes your emotional weathers like it is in San Diego, right,
or it's you know in theory in Theory sunny all
the time, right, And sometimes your emotional weather is kind
of like where it is where I grew up in
the Northeast, where it's snowy, your rainy, and it doesn't
have to be like that all the time. It will change,
but it's normal. Like this is just the kind of
thing that tends to be normal. And I love this
(12:43):
approach because you know, it cannot be sunny every day
when it comes to your emotional health, you know, even
if you live on sesame streets.
Speaker 7 (12:52):
Oh no, sorry to interrupt, but just a sesame street.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Because that's that's really am our nerves. How much this step?
How must tell mister Steve, who's our friend?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Elmo? Hi, this is doctor Lorie Santos.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
No, doctor Lory, and we were just talking about emotions.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Ah, Elmo, do you know what emotions are?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
They're kind of like feelings And I love talking to
people about their feelings.
Speaker 7 (13:28):
You do them so so doctor Lloy is kind of
a doctor as sealings.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, I guess so cure.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Elma knows all the dead feelings.
Speaker 7 (13:40):
You know, sometimes almost feels happy or sometimes I almost feel.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Sad, and then sometimes Elma does really did feelings.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
Like you know, there was this one time doctor Noy
when Alma couldn't get his toy air playing the fly.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
You know, no matter what he did, it just kept
falling on the ground and almost face felt really hot
and almost.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Body got me a tight a ges, you know, but
you know almost Daddy helped him learn something called what
was it?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
There?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Boy?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
The way that Elma was feeling. You know what it is?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
No, what was it?
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Elma?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It's a big name.
Speaker 7 (14:17):
It's called just a minute fresh?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Frustrating? Is that up rod?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (14:25):
Yeah, you know it's kind of frustrating for a three
year old to pronounce frustrating.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I love that, Almo. I love that your dad was
help helpful to teach you a label.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
That you could use for being frustrated, and also that
he told you that it's normal sometimes to be frustrated.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Emma know that he wouldn't always feud I'm red. Wait
you trying.
Speaker 7 (14:44):
Alma tells Daddy that he nott a feelings doctor, he's
gonna knock up.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Okay, I'm gonna be right down. Okay, I'm gonna let
you get back to him.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Okay, bye bye, Alma.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
But like you've just seen the magic of media, write
this incredibly difficult concept that negative emotions are normative, that
they change over time, and we can have a character
explained this big concept to and so kay, you know,
talk about how Sesame has gotten good at kind of
getting these concepts to make sense to little kids and
some of the best practices that you've used at the
workshop to do this.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Well, Okay, So.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
We start with our in house team of experts. We
have our curriculum development experts, and we have our educators,
and we have our subject matter expert team, and they
partner with external subject matter experts like you, Lori, and
we're working on some projects with you right now. And
what they do is they start off by developing the
curriculum and the educational messages that we want to impart
(15:41):
in our content, and then that material is given to
our production team, the writers, who organically incorporate the educational
messages and the curriculum into the stories.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
And then our.
Speaker 6 (15:53):
Research team takes those scripts and works with the production
team to create these like story mattics, and they take
them out to do formative testing with children who we
like to refer to as our little executives because we
listen to what they say. And what they're doing is
they're testing these stories for appeal and for comprehension and
(16:14):
to make sure that the impact that we're trying to
achieve is going to be achieved, and then we produce
the show, and sometimes it's very much an iterative process
because there are times when they go out for the
research and it comes back where we're not quite landing
the messaging that we're trying to convey, and so we
go back and we adjust the scripts and then it
all comes together. And then on top of that you
(16:36):
have the magic of our terrific messengers of the Sesame
Street muppets, and they have such a great way of
communicating sometimes really tough and challenging information, always with heart,
always with a lot of love, and communicating it and
breaking it down kids. But also I want to mention
that for parents as well, because when we're making this content,
(16:58):
we're making content not just for kids, but for also
the parents in their lives, their educators, their teachers, their
service providers, anyone that's within the circle of care.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
We're providing content for those folks as well.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
That's something that I really love about what the folks
at Sesame Workshop are doing because the well being concepts
that we need to teach children are also important for
adults to learn too, and that means that when parents
or caregivers sit down with a child to watch a
Sesame Street episode about frustration or anger or great bursts
of excitement. They'll be given the strategies in space needed
(17:31):
to ponder their own emotions. But what are other simple
strategies like this, ones that can work for anyone, no
matter their age. We'll discuss some of these happiness hacks
with a very special Muppet helper when the Happiness Lab
returns in a moment, whether you're a kid or an adult,
(17:57):
we can all acquire strategies to use in the moment
to help us cope with what almost so eloquently described
as big feelings. The science shows that when we recognize
a difficult emotion rising within us, there are steps we
can take to a line and regulate that emotion. And
the steps you can take are remarkably simple once you
learn them. So, since I had Sesame workshops Steve Youngwood
(18:17):
and Kay Wilson Stallings, and a big audience at the
ASUGSV Summit, I decided to embark on a live demonstration
of some of my favorite strategies and to engage with
some of these mindfulness activities. I think it would be
fun if we all did it.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Together. But it would also be great if I could.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Find a volunteer somewhere.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Let me see.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I think I'm gonna pick Almo.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yes, yes, yes, Almo. Do you want to practice a
mindfulness activity with me?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (18:49):
Emma would enough to practice a month onness activity?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
What is a month on us activity?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yes, it's a hard concept.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
This is the kind of thing that we can do
when we're having these big feelings, like when we're feeling
frustrated and we want to feel a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 7 (19:06):
That kind of sounds like another thing that almost Daddy
tied them to do when he's having a big thing.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It's kind jelly breathing belly and I want.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
To show everybody, but everybody's got to do it together. Okay, okay,
So first we put our hands on our belly like this,
everybody put your hand on your belly.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
Now let's our take a slow breath in through your
mouth and now slowly breathe out through your mouth. And
that's billy breathing.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
That's an excellent Elmo, And that is a wonderful mindfulness
activity because it's a way that we can whatever we're feeling,
we can kind of get back in our bodies and
feel a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
But do you want to do a couple more mindfulness activities?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Oh yeah, what is some more God glory?
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Let's hear okay.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So one of my favorites is a behavior we can use,
which is that we can be a little bit more
other oriented when we're not feeling good. This is ways
that we do nice things for other people that actually
make us feel better.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Oh yeah, I almost done that before.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
You know.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
There's there was a time when Almill helps Joey how
to learn how to ride a scooter orl at you know.
Sometimes Elma helps Alan at Hooper's store, and helping makes
almost feel really good.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah, and so that's one that we can use.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
But there's another one that I think you'll like, Elmo,
which is that we can change our mindset. We can
express and experience gratitude. So this is just kind of
when we notice things that we're thankful for. And this
is something I do so at night, right before I
go to bed, I think about a few things that
I'm grateful for, and sometimes I even write it down.
And studies show that this actually makes us feel better.
(20:39):
It can make our bodies and our minds feel good.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
Really well, almost grateful for a lot of things. Alma's
mommy and daddy, Almos friends, pizza. But you know, I'm
almost gonna ask his mommy to help him write all
that stuff down at bedtime.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I love that it's gonna make you feel so much better.
And if we have time for one more mindfulness activity,
I'm going to share one that I think you'll like
because I think it's one that you happen to do
a little bit already.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Oh does it have to do a thing?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I'm sure No, it's not that. It is that if
you want to feel better, you can take time to
be with pets. And I know that Almo recently adopted
a dog, right, And so that's a wonderful way to
do something nice for another creature and to feel good yourself.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Oh yes, that's a great idea.
Speaker 7 (21:26):
Yeah, I'm gonna love this puppy tanger because Tango makes
everybody that she needs really happy. I's gonna go cat
Tango that she's basically a superhero. Oh okay, thank you,
Doctor Lory, Thanks everybody you later, I.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Am Yoma Iolmo.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
But again here we are right, Like, these are quick
skill sets that any of us kids parents can engage
in whenever we're feeling not so good right, deep belly
breath behaviors that make us happier than we expect, doing
nice things for others, and these long term changes to
our mindsets, things like gratitude and so on. And so
I love that we can teach kids these things and
have wonderful models for these activities. But another reason that
(22:07):
I love Sesame's approach, which we kind of alluded to before,
is that it's not just about teaching kids these activities.
It's making these skills available to caregivers too, And so
Steve talk a little bit about how we can use
media to reach both of these audiences and the power
that kind of engaging with caretakers can have when it
comes to kids' emotional health.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
So, anyone who knows the workshop, it was founded on
that simple principle that it wasn't about if kids were
learning from media, it was about what. And at the time,
in nineteen sixty nine, in the wasteland of children's TV,
they were learning the words to beer commercials. So is
that simple thing if you could take that same medium
but pivot to the abcs and then go from their social,
emotional and societal issues. You could actually really make a difference.
(22:49):
And then history has shown that that was true. There
have been seminal studies that say people who grew up
on Sesame Street and had higher GPAs and even earned
more money. Now, the media landscape today is obviously very different,
and it allows one actually different to us in a
challenging way because it's more fragmented, but in a good way,
and that they're more places to meet audiences and they're
(23:11):
more types of content that you can deliver to them.
When we started, it was also about kids and parents together.
There's one screen in the house, but today it's a
multi screen and it allows us to sometimes reach kids
and parents together, sometimes kids alone, but also sometimes with partners.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Like Lori, to actually meet parents and caregivers.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
And what's amazing is that the hypothesis that the power
that media can have to both teach but also to
move hearts and minds is still true. We have a
big project targeting the Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq,
and Syria, and we just came back to the one
hundred million dollar grant film Tropically funded to bring early
childhood education there partnering with the IRC because we are
(23:55):
media makers and they are a direct service organization, and
we just got two seminal studies back that proved the hypothesis.
But then all start going to help us in some
of the work. Here one of us for a mass
TV show where we focus on a curriculum given the
trauma that they were going through on we call it
the emotional ABCS and looking in Jordan, which is where
(24:15):
we did the study, it came back that the children
who watched the show were able to more identify their emotions,
which as Laurie says, is sort of the top of
the funnel, and then also could adopt certain coping mechanisms
to deal with them, which is so important because if
you can't then it becomes a blocker to learning and
it impacts you long term life. On the other side,
(24:38):
using the new technologies as media changes, we you know
as direct services, was a big part of the program.
But COVID came and we pivoted to remote learning where
we took our content, we took teachers when we use WhatsApp,
and we just completed study in Lebanon that eleven weeks
of the remote learning using our media and teachers and
technology was equal to one year for the Serian refugee
(25:00):
children that went through the program.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
You know, so all of this is and that is
the use of media. That is the use of media
and the remote learning.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
One also engage the parents because it had the moments
with the teachers, but then it had the extension that
the parents were supposed to do and they came back
as a community. So it was the whole sort of
picture of parents and students and teachers and media having
a long term impact in the situation that there was
no other option.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
So you know, as we look forward, that is the
hope here. That is the hope.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
In general, we do it by our own outlets, but
we're partnering with people and you know, it's a hypothesis
that we've tested and we've proven and it's very, very powerful,
and so we know.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
How important it is to kind of have this approach
where we're including caregivers, we're including teachers, we're including everyone
in the child's culture and orbit.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
But it's still hard to do that and to make
media that's fun and enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And so KAY talk a little bit about some best
practices that you use to really engage caregivers given the
content that you're developing.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
So we know that the educational messages come through even
stronger when children are engaged with our content with the
caring adult, because then the learning can continue after the
television show goes off. And so we're always looking for
ways to bring adults into the show. And so I
think everyone that's familiar with Sesame Street knows how funny
it is. And there's often times humor that we bring
(26:25):
into the show that's a little subtle, a little cheeky,
that's just something that's a nod to the parents that
we know are watching. We also use lots of great music,
and we partner with an amazing array of singer and
songwriters and provide all genres of musical tastes, so a
little bit of something for everyone, from hip hop to
country to you know, reggae.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
And then what we also like to.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
Do is we look and produce a lot of parodies
and it's like things that again it's something that adults recognize,
so it's based on you know, TV shows or pop
culture and that kind of thing. And then you know,
it's just always making sure that also we have opportunities
for our human adult characters as well as our adult
muppet characters to be role models as well. Soo and
(27:09):
his Friends are great role models for our children, but
to have the adults on the show also be role
models and provide the way to talk to their children,
to wait, to guide the answers, or guide play activities,
and so forth, so that it can be also a
learning opportunity for the adults as well.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And just in the spirit of having a learning opportunity
for the adults, I imagine there's some parents in the
room right now, and so it might be helpful to
give parents some specific skill sets that they can use.
And here, since it's just parents, we won't involve Alma.
We'll just sort of try it ourselves. And so I'll
leave you with one last sort of strategy that we
can all use, which is a strategy to engage our
self compassion. One of the tough things about being an
(27:48):
adult and a parent is that we often talk to
ourselves in incredibly mean ways. You know, if hr could
hear the voices that we used in our head, we
would all get fired for talking badly to ourselves, right,
But there are strategies that we can use to counteract that,
and one of my favorite ones is when you hear
yourself on that ruminative loop where you're saying, oh, I suck,
I didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Well, I'm not doing enough.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
That's when you take a moment to label that thought.
You give it a name.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
My Yale students like to use Karen because I think
Karen is like a meme, people like, oh, yeah, Karen, Yeah,
you're just saying I'm bad today.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I hear you, Karen, thank you for trying to help, right.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
But I think in the spirit of Systemy workshop, we
can say that's my Oscar voice, like I'm just being
a grouch to myself today. And so that's just a
hack that you can all use when you notice that
rum and into voice, stop it, thank it, you know,
allow for thank you negative voice, Thank you Oscar for
trying to help me. But I'm going to stop that
train of thought and move on to something else. So
that's another quick hack that parents can use. And so
(28:45):
so so far today we've talked about ways that we
can teach really difficult concepts. We can show and model
skills and practices that kids can engage in when they're
not feeling good. We can also show and model practices
that maybe parents can engage in when they're not talking
to themselves and feeling so good.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
You know, With all these.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Things together, my last question for both of you is that,
you know, are you hopeful that we can address this crisis?
You know is sit on the college side, you know,
I see the emotional struggles that students come in. I
see the depression and anxiety. Do we really think we
can use media to nip that in the bud? Can
you get me away from my lectures so I can
go back to doing my research and I don't have
(29:23):
to keep teaching these classes on emotional health to college students.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Can we kind of make it there early enough for kids? Yes,
I think we can.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
You know, as Stevid said, we've you know, handled tough
topics in the past, and I think that you know,
with the content that we're going to be creating that's
engaging and that's for both parents and caregivers and children
and our research based you know, resources that we'll be providing,
I think that we will be able to help children
develop the tools that they need so that they can have,
(29:52):
you know, a positive and healthy mindset for now and
in the future.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Steve.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I'm hopeful as well, or I wouldn't be here for
two reasons. One is I think that we have the
proven techniques, and I think we have a lot of
partners because we're as good as our partners in terms
of if we're going to reach the audience is at
scale that we need to. But the other thing is
from a societal perspective, it seems like people are acknowledging
it as they always say, that's acknowledging the problem is
(30:19):
that the gatekeeper sort of in terms of addressing the problem.
And as I joke to Lori but not completely joke,
that you know, success will be measured in fifteen years
when her class is six hundred is now a seminar
of ten people, and they're historically looking at d see
what it used to be like. So it's a history
class as opposed to a moment in time class.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
And so this is one of the reasons that I'm
excited not just about this conversation but about future conversations.
If your interest was piqued by this, I encourage you
to pay attention to the Happiness Lab podcast feed because
we're going to be continuing to have lots of conversations
with the folks at Sesame Workshop about best practices.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
That we can use to engage with this. But with that,
I want to thank all of you for listening and
to think my fantastic panel.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Steve Youngwood, CEO of Sesame Workshop, Kay Wilson Stallings, Chief
Production and Creative Development Officer, and there's probably somebody else I'm.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Forgetting to thank.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yes, Elma, you forgot to thank you, Alma, But that's okay,
you know, dark a night.
Speaker 7 (31:27):
Oh, I had a really good time learning all these
different strategies.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Well, thank you so much, Elmo. This has been such
a fun conversation and I hope we can do it
again sometime soon.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah, I'm much here.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Thank you so much for Elmo. Everyone, gog you, hie everybody.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Everyone. You might be surprised to hear that I kind
of share Steve's hope that I can retire from teaching
my college happiness class. My dream is that someday we
won't need people like me teaching well being strategies to
young adults, because all those emotional skills will be as
much a part of early educational development as learning the
ABC's or how to ride a bike. But We've got
(32:04):
a lot of work still to be done to get
to that point, and I hope that the Happiness Labs
up in collaboration with the Sesame Street Folks, will be
an important first step in that direction, showing that it's
never too late and also never too early to pay
attention to what science has to say about happiness. So
keep an ear out for that very special season coming
this fall. And just a reminder that Sesame Workshop is
(32:26):
a nonprofit organization with a mission to help kids grow smarter, stronger,
and kinder. The work they do is funded by donations
big and small, so if you really want to become
a part of their important mission to improve children's emotional wellbeing,
then be sure to visit sesameworkshop dot org, forward slash
support us
Pushkin, did you ever hear of a happiness hack or
well being strategy on this show? And think, gee, I
wish I learned that one years ago. It's certainly never
too late to discover the lessons that the science of
happiness has to offer. I know from your emails that
some of you listening right now are in your sixth, seventh,
(00:37):
and even eighth decades, and that you still feel that
you learn a ton from what we talk about on
the Happiness Lab. But there's also a growing movement arguing
that it's never too early to start mastering these happiness hacks.
The very things that science shows can make grown adults flourish,
practices like mindfulness, gratitude, or being sociable and other oriented.
All of these are habits that can boost well being
(00:58):
in younger minds too, And that's the reason that I
got started teaching happiness in the first place. The students
who take my Science of well Being class are incredibly smart,
but also surprisingly anxious and unhappy young adult. I think
my class helps, but I wish that my students could
have learned all the strategies I teach long before they
entered college. That's why I recently launched a free course
(01:18):
for adolescents called The Science of Well Being for Teens,
which you can find on YouTube or.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
On Coursera dot org.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But we shouldn't just begin taking care of our emotional
health in middle school either. We should be getting this
knowledge to kids even earlier. So how can we get
children to start investing in their happiness as soon as
they start learning their abcs and how to count?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Oh, I've had that the norm?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well that's a little clue because the experts that you'll
hear from in this episode are the amazing people at
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that's behind Sesame Street, which has
helped teach generation after generation of children literacy, numeracy, and yes,
social emotional skills. Grover Big Bird and all the human
residents of Sesame Street.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
You've forgot the Alma, But that's okay.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Sorry, Grover Big Bird. Elmo and the team have a
track record in getting vital educational messages out not only
to young viewers, but also to the people watching alongside them,
whether that's parents, caregivers, grandparents, older siblings, or teachers, and
recent work has begun to show that with the right
characters and stories, we can teach children's strategies for protecting
(02:21):
their well being even in really difficult times. Take for example,
some new research coming out of NYU. They tested the
improvements that preschool children showed after watching Alan Simpson, which
is the Arabic version of Sesame Street that Sesame Workshop
created in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee and a
generous grant from the MacArthur Foundation. The research showed that
(02:43):
after watching the show, young viewers and crisis affected areas
were more able to successfully identify their emotions and to
apply a simple coping strategy. As a result, watching the
show had taught these kids the emotional abcs they needed
even in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis. So
when an opportunity came along to collaborate with Sesame Workshop
(03:03):
and their ongoing efforts to teach well being fundamentals, you
better believe I jumped at it. Later in the year,
will be bringing you a special season of shows featuring
not only all of your furry friends from Sesame Street,
but also the many experts from Sesame Workshop who craft
the content that so playfully teaches viewers such important lessons.
But this new series won't just be for kids or
(03:25):
just for parents or caregivers of a kid. Whether you're
aged three or one hundred and three, you'll still hear
new things about the science of happiness, just with a
little added Sesame Workshop furry fun. And To kick off
the collaboration, I took part in a live event at
the Arizona State University and Global Silicon Valley Summit, a
massive conference for educators which was held in San Diego
(03:46):
in April. At the summit, I had a chance to
interview three of the key players at Sesame Workshop, their
CEO Steve Youngwood, the Chief Production and Creative Development Officer,
Kay Wilson Stallings, and everyone's favorite furry red monster Elmo.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So welcome.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Today, we're going to be talking about things that we
can be doing to lay the foundation to help our
young people as emotionally as mentally healthy as they possibly can.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I'm Laurie Santos.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I'm a professor of psychology at Yale and host of
the Happiness Lab podcast. I spend a lot of my
time thinking about how we can help mental health at
the level of higher ed in my college students. But
lately I've been feeling like my job would be a
lot easier if I didn't have to wait until students
got to college to start thinking about their emotional health.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
We're going to be talking about how we can lay
the foundation of children's emotional health as early as possible,
and how the media can really help with that. This
is going to be the first in a whole series
of conversations that we're doing as part of my podcast
with experts on how we can teach children using the media.
And that is why I have my fantastic other panelists
and guests here today. The Happiness Lab is so excited
(04:54):
to be partnering with Sesame Workshop and to toast it off,
I'm going to turn it over to Steve and Ka
to introduce themselves.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
I am the CEO of Sesme Workshop and we're most
known obviously for Sesame Street, you know, which you know
has joy but also sort of like touched kids and
families for over fifty plus years around the world.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
You know, at a bit of a higher level.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
As we kind of look at our vision going forward,
you know, it's really to empower that next generation to
build what we hope is a better place, and you know,
We do it by trying to be a child's most
trusted friend, trying to be a caregiver's valued partner, and
you know, we try to create as a global impact
organization these experiences that enrich minds and in large hearts.
(05:41):
We focus on early childhood because we do believe that
is where you can have the greatest long term impact
of building a foundation. And we do it by entertaining kids,
but not as an end in itself. It's really about
as a means to an end of educating them and
addressing the most pressing issues, which is why we're so
excited to be with Laurie here. Emotional well being is
clearly a pressing issue for a society for adults, for parents,
(06:04):
for children. And it's funny, you know, Laurie is excited
working with us because it's like she I was older,
and what can you learn from younger?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
To me, it's.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Almost like it's more like, Wow, if we can see
where their problems are better understand them later, we can
sort of backward engineer and have a more impactful program.
So I'm excited for the conversation. I'm excited where this
relationship will go, and I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 6 (06:25):
It's okay, Hi, my first time here, and I'm very
excited to be here as well, and excited to share
with you what we're doing at the workshop to engage
in this work and to have the greatest impact possible.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And so I wanted to start with the state of
where we're at right now, you know, because this is
a big focus on children's mental health, and so Steve,
you know, talk to me about some of the statistics
about where things are and how are you trying to
elevate your work on mental health with kids through Sesame workshop.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
So from the beginning, we've always taken a whole child's
curriculum approach, and emotional well being is part of it.
But clearly we're in a different moment now, which is
why we're having taking a different you know, focus on it,
following COVID and a lot of other.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Things that are going on.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
And it's both the different moment in terms of how
kids are sort of experiencing, but also a different moment
in terms of where it is in the conversation in society.
We're particularly focused because there's a lot of attention on
older audiences teens and college students and it's often the
younger kids, who we believe are the most important, that
don't get talked about. If you look at this generation
(07:32):
of three to five year olds, they were born into
COVID and I was just with some preschoolers and researchers
and he's talking about the real, tangible, obvious like implications
that they grew up with anxious households. They grew up
with masks and so you see this in as they
can't read facial expressions as well. They grew up with
(07:52):
a closed community and some of their sort of verbal
development it is slowed down. And those are real things
that we don't know how but inevitably that they will
have impact. But then you look at the parents, it's
different now, it's less stigmatized. They're bringing more kids to
mental health facilities. Percent of them now leave. It's a
major issue for early child at eighty percent of them
believe that media can help. So we're at a moment
(08:16):
where the issue is bigger, the conversation is more open,
and you know, it is a time for us to
put a more sort of pointed focus on it as
we hope help the kids today. But we always say
it's also it's the foundation. So if you can build
the habits today, you can make a difference in the future.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And I think this is something where Sesame really can
play a very critical role because this is not the
first time that Sesame Workshop has had to step in
when kids were facing some kind of crisis. You know,
give me a sense of the history of this and
the fact that Sesame has done this a lot in
the past.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Yeah, you know, while we have the history of it
was founded to get kids ready for kindergarten. You have
your curriculum, and then there's the moments you need to
meet and it's in our DNA. You know, there was
a seminal thing that at least those from the US
may remembers.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
In the early eighties, we had a.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Character mister Hooper, played by He passed away in real life,
and you know, as opposed to writing him off, having
him moved to California or something, one decided that, Okay,
here was a moment to teach kids and give families
the tools of something that unfortunately everyone will experience, which
is a loss of a loved one. So we did
(09:29):
the research. We created an episode really focusing on the
fact that Okay, it's Okay, to be sad. Death means
they're not coming back, but you'll still have the memories.
And we felt that was important for the kids, and
we felt that was important for caregivers. You know, more
recently during COVID and there's also the tragic murder of
(09:49):
George Floyd. We again pivoted from some things and said,
let's meet that moment. There are questions that families have,
there are emotions that kids are going through, there are
conversations that people don't not to have. We can use
our relationship, we can use our various partners, and we
can use our expertise to address it because it was needed.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
In the moment.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
The emotional wellbeing is an ongoing thing, but it's another
moment that we think we need to meet.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And so as we've talked more about the kinds of
ways that we're going to meet this important moment. Okay,
I know you've brought up that Sesame workshop often takes
this full spectrum approach to thinking about skills building and
also thinking about kids' emotional health. So what do you
mean by this full spectrum approach?
Speaker 6 (10:31):
So when we're thinking about emotional wellbeing and children, we're
talking about the way they think and feel about themselves
and the experiences they have as they encounter the world
around them. And we know that children need to have
a healthy mental state in order to thrive, in order
to develop a compassionate mindset, in order to have joyous moments,
(10:52):
and to develop physically, emotionally, and socially. And so when
we look at mental wellness and emotional wellbeing, we're looking
at the complete spectrum of those everyday joyous moments, helping
children to recognize and explain their emotions, and then also
helping parents to recognize when there might be some really
(11:15):
serious emotional challenges that their children are dealing with.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And so I think as we think about this full
spectrum approach, there's this question about, Okay, what are the
specific kinds of things we can build into that, and
where are the spots where media can can be especially helpful.
And one of the domains I think where media can
be really useful is in trying to explain very tricky concepts, right,
you know, I teach a class at Yale University, like
an Ivy League school about some of these scientific practices
(11:39):
that build well being. But there's a question about how
we can boil down some of these like scientific notions
in a way that kids can really understand, and just
to kind of give one concrete example which I think
will be helpful. One of the things we've talked about
in our curriculum development is ways to teach kids that
emotions change, and that negative emotions are normative, right, Like,
sometimes we're just going to be upset or sad or
(12:01):
anxious or frustrated or whatever it is, and that kind
of thing is normal.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
This is a hard concept for adults to get, right,
but it can be especially hard for children. And one
of the things we've talked about in our curriculum is, like, Okay,
what's an analogy we can use that kids would get
about something that's changing doesn't feel good, but you know,
sometimes you have to put up with it. And we thought, oh,
you know the weather, you know, sunny days.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
The idea is we can teach kids that, you know,
sometimes your emotional weathers like it is in San Diego, right,
or it's you know in theory in Theory sunny all
the time, right, And sometimes your emotional weather is kind
of like where it is where I grew up in
the Northeast, where it's snowy, your rainy, and it doesn't
have to be like that all the time. It will change,
but it's normal. Like this is just the kind of
thing that tends to be normal. And I love this
(12:43):
approach because you know, it cannot be sunny every day
when it comes to your emotional health, you know, even
if you live on sesame streets.
Speaker 7 (12:52):
Oh no, sorry to interrupt, but just a sesame street.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Because that's that's really am our nerves. How much this step?
How must tell mister Steve, who's our friend?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Elmo? Hi, this is doctor Lorie Santos.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
No, doctor Lory, and we were just talking about emotions.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Ah, Elmo, do you know what emotions are?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
They're kind of like feelings And I love talking to
people about their feelings.
Speaker 7 (13:28):
You do them so so doctor Lloy is kind of
a doctor as sealings.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, I guess so cure.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Elma knows all the dead feelings.
Speaker 7 (13:40):
You know, sometimes almost feels happy or sometimes I almost feel.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Sad, and then sometimes Elma does really did feelings.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
Like you know, there was this one time doctor Noy
when Alma couldn't get his toy air playing the fly.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
You know, no matter what he did, it just kept
falling on the ground and almost face felt really hot
and almost.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Body got me a tight a ges, you know, but
you know almost Daddy helped him learn something called what
was it?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
There?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Boy?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
The way that Elma was feeling. You know what it is?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
No, what was it?
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Elma?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It's a big name.
Speaker 7 (14:17):
It's called just a minute fresh?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Frustrating? Is that up rod?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (14:25):
Yeah, you know it's kind of frustrating for a three
year old to pronounce frustrating.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I love that, Almo. I love that your dad was
help helpful to teach you a label.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
That you could use for being frustrated, and also that
he told you that it's normal sometimes to be frustrated.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Emma know that he wouldn't always feud I'm red. Wait
you trying.
Speaker 7 (14:44):
Alma tells Daddy that he nott a feelings doctor, he's
gonna knock up.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Okay, I'm gonna be right down. Okay, I'm gonna let
you get back to him.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Okay, bye bye, Alma.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
But like you've just seen the magic of media, write
this incredibly difficult concept that negative emotions are normative, that
they change over time, and we can have a character
explained this big concept to and so kay, you know,
talk about how Sesame has gotten good at kind of
getting these concepts to make sense to little kids and
some of the best practices that you've used at the
workshop to do this.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Well, Okay, So.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
We start with our in house team of experts. We
have our curriculum development experts, and we have our educators,
and we have our subject matter expert team, and they
partner with external subject matter experts like you, Lori, and
we're working on some projects with you right now. And
what they do is they start off by developing the
curriculum and the educational messages that we want to impart
(15:41):
in our content, and then that material is given to
our production team, the writers, who organically incorporate the educational
messages and the curriculum into the stories.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
And then our.
Speaker 6 (15:53):
Research team takes those scripts and works with the production
team to create these like story mattics, and they take
them out to do formative testing with children who we
like to refer to as our little executives because we
listen to what they say. And what they're doing is
they're testing these stories for appeal and for comprehension and
(16:14):
to make sure that the impact that we're trying to
achieve is going to be achieved, and then we produce
the show, and sometimes it's very much an iterative process
because there are times when they go out for the
research and it comes back where we're not quite landing
the messaging that we're trying to convey, and so we
go back and we adjust the scripts and then it
all comes together. And then on top of that you
(16:36):
have the magic of our terrific messengers of the Sesame
Street muppets, and they have such a great way of
communicating sometimes really tough and challenging information, always with heart,
always with a lot of love, and communicating it and
breaking it down kids. But also I want to mention
that for parents as well, because when we're making this content,
(16:58):
we're making content not just for kids, but for also
the parents in their lives, their educators, their teachers, their
service providers, anyone that's within the circle of care.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
We're providing content for those folks as well.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
That's something that I really love about what the folks
at Sesame Workshop are doing because the well being concepts
that we need to teach children are also important for
adults to learn too, and that means that when parents
or caregivers sit down with a child to watch a
Sesame Street episode about frustration or anger or great bursts
of excitement. They'll be given the strategies in space needed
(17:31):
to ponder their own emotions. But what are other simple
strategies like this, ones that can work for anyone, no
matter their age. We'll discuss some of these happiness hacks
with a very special Muppet helper when the Happiness Lab
returns in a moment, whether you're a kid or an adult,
(17:57):
we can all acquire strategies to use in the moment
to help us cope with what almost so eloquently described
as big feelings. The science shows that when we recognize
a difficult emotion rising within us, there are steps we
can take to a line and regulate that emotion. And
the steps you can take are remarkably simple once you
learn them. So, since I had Sesame workshops Steve Youngwood
(18:17):
and Kay Wilson Stallings, and a big audience at the
ASUGSV Summit, I decided to embark on a live demonstration
of some of my favorite strategies and to engage with
some of these mindfulness activities. I think it would be
fun if we all did it.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Together. But it would also be great if I could.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Find a volunteer somewhere.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Let me see.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I think I'm gonna pick Almo.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yes, yes, yes, Almo. Do you want to practice a
mindfulness activity with me?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (18:49):
Emma would enough to practice a month onness activity?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
What is a month on us activity?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yes, it's a hard concept.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
This is the kind of thing that we can do
when we're having these big feelings, like when we're feeling
frustrated and we want to feel a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 7 (19:06):
That kind of sounds like another thing that almost Daddy
tied them to do when he's having a big thing.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It's kind jelly breathing belly and I want.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
To show everybody, but everybody's got to do it together. Okay, okay,
So first we put our hands on our belly like this,
everybody put your hand on your belly.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
Now let's our take a slow breath in through your
mouth and now slowly breathe out through your mouth. And
that's billy breathing.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
That's an excellent Elmo, And that is a wonderful mindfulness
activity because it's a way that we can whatever we're feeling,
we can kind of get back in our bodies and
feel a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
But do you want to do a couple more mindfulness activities?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Oh yeah, what is some more God glory?
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Let's hear okay.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So one of my favorites is a behavior we can use,
which is that we can be a little bit more
other oriented when we're not feeling good. This is ways
that we do nice things for other people that actually
make us feel better.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Oh yeah, I almost done that before.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
You know.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
There's there was a time when Almill helps Joey how
to learn how to ride a scooter orl at you know.
Sometimes Elma helps Alan at Hooper's store, and helping makes
almost feel really good.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah, and so that's one that we can use.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
But there's another one that I think you'll like, Elmo,
which is that we can change our mindset. We can
express and experience gratitude. So this is just kind of
when we notice things that we're thankful for. And this
is something I do so at night, right before I
go to bed, I think about a few things that
I'm grateful for, and sometimes I even write it down.
And studies show that this actually makes us feel better.
(20:39):
It can make our bodies and our minds feel good.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
Really well, almost grateful for a lot of things. Alma's
mommy and daddy, Almos friends, pizza. But you know, I'm
almost gonna ask his mommy to help him write all
that stuff down at bedtime.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I love that it's gonna make you feel so much better.
And if we have time for one more mindfulness activity,
I'm going to share one that I think you'll like
because I think it's one that you happen to do
a little bit already.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Oh does it have to do a thing?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I'm sure No, it's not that. It is that if
you want to feel better, you can take time to
be with pets. And I know that Almo recently adopted
a dog, right, And so that's a wonderful way to
do something nice for another creature and to feel good yourself.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Oh yes, that's a great idea.
Speaker 7 (21:26):
Yeah, I'm gonna love this puppy tanger because Tango makes
everybody that she needs really happy. I's gonna go cat
Tango that she's basically a superhero. Oh okay, thank you,
Doctor Lory, Thanks everybody you later, I.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Am Yoma Iolmo.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
But again here we are right, Like, these are quick
skill sets that any of us kids parents can engage
in whenever we're feeling not so good right, deep belly
breath behaviors that make us happier than we expect, doing
nice things for others, and these long term changes to
our mindsets, things like gratitude and so on. And so
I love that we can teach kids these things and
have wonderful models for these activities. But another reason that
(22:07):
I love Sesame's approach, which we kind of alluded to before,
is that it's not just about teaching kids these activities.
It's making these skills available to caregivers too, And so
Steve talk a little bit about how we can use
media to reach both of these audiences and the power
that kind of engaging with caretakers can have when it
comes to kids' emotional health.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
So, anyone who knows the workshop, it was founded on
that simple principle that it wasn't about if kids were
learning from media, it was about what. And at the time,
in nineteen sixty nine, in the wasteland of children's TV,
they were learning the words to beer commercials. So is
that simple thing if you could take that same medium
but pivot to the abcs and then go from their social,
emotional and societal issues. You could actually really make a difference.
(22:49):
And then history has shown that that was true. There
have been seminal studies that say people who grew up
on Sesame Street and had higher GPAs and even earned
more money. Now, the media landscape today is obviously very different,
and it allows one actually different to us in a
challenging way because it's more fragmented, but in a good way,
and that they're more places to meet audiences and they're
(23:11):
more types of content that you can deliver to them.
When we started, it was also about kids and parents together.
There's one screen in the house, but today it's a
multi screen and it allows us to sometimes reach kids
and parents together, sometimes kids alone, but also sometimes with partners.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Like Lori, to actually meet parents and caregivers.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
And what's amazing is that the hypothesis that the power
that media can have to both teach but also to
move hearts and minds is still true. We have a
big project targeting the Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq,
and Syria, and we just came back to the one
hundred million dollar grant film Tropically funded to bring early
childhood education there partnering with the IRC because we are
(23:55):
media makers and they are a direct service organization, and
we just got two seminal studies back that proved the hypothesis.
But then all start going to help us in some
of the work. Here one of us for a mass
TV show where we focus on a curriculum given the
trauma that they were going through on we call it
the emotional ABCS and looking in Jordan, which is where
(24:15):
we did the study, it came back that the children
who watched the show were able to more identify their emotions,
which as Laurie says, is sort of the top of
the funnel, and then also could adopt certain coping mechanisms
to deal with them, which is so important because if
you can't then it becomes a blocker to learning and
it impacts you long term life. On the other side,
(24:38):
using the new technologies as media changes, we you know
as direct services, was a big part of the program.
But COVID came and we pivoted to remote learning where
we took our content, we took teachers when we use WhatsApp,
and we just completed study in Lebanon that eleven weeks
of the remote learning using our media and teachers and
technology was equal to one year for the Serian refugee
(25:00):
children that went through the program.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
You know, so all of this is and that is
the use of media. That is the use of media
and the remote learning.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
One also engage the parents because it had the moments
with the teachers, but then it had the extension that
the parents were supposed to do and they came back
as a community. So it was the whole sort of
picture of parents and students and teachers and media having
a long term impact in the situation that there was
no other option.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
So you know, as we look forward, that is the
hope here. That is the hope.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
In general, we do it by our own outlets, but
we're partnering with people and you know, it's a hypothesis
that we've tested and we've proven and it's very, very powerful,
and so we know.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
How important it is to kind of have this approach
where we're including caregivers, we're including teachers, we're including everyone
in the child's culture and orbit.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
But it's still hard to do that and to make
media that's fun and enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And so KAY talk a little bit about some best
practices that you use to really engage caregivers given the
content that you're developing.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
So we know that the educational messages come through even
stronger when children are engaged with our content with the
caring adult, because then the learning can continue after the
television show goes off. And so we're always looking for
ways to bring adults into the show. And so I
think everyone that's familiar with Sesame Street knows how funny
it is. And there's often times humor that we bring
(26:25):
into the show that's a little subtle, a little cheeky,
that's just something that's a nod to the parents that
we know are watching. We also use lots of great music,
and we partner with an amazing array of singer and
songwriters and provide all genres of musical tastes, so a
little bit of something for everyone, from hip hop to
country to you know, reggae.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
And then what we also like to.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
Do is we look and produce a lot of parodies
and it's like things that again it's something that adults recognize,
so it's based on you know, TV shows or pop
culture and that kind of thing. And then you know,
it's just always making sure that also we have opportunities
for our human adult characters as well as our adult
muppet characters to be role models as well. Soo and
(27:09):
his Friends are great role models for our children, but
to have the adults on the show also be role
models and provide the way to talk to their children,
to wait, to guide the answers, or guide play activities,
and so forth, so that it can be also a
learning opportunity for the adults as well.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And just in the spirit of having a learning opportunity
for the adults, I imagine there's some parents in the
room right now, and so it might be helpful to
give parents some specific skill sets that they can use.
And here, since it's just parents, we won't involve Alma.
We'll just sort of try it ourselves. And so I'll
leave you with one last sort of strategy that we
can all use, which is a strategy to engage our
self compassion. One of the tough things about being an
(27:48):
adult and a parent is that we often talk to
ourselves in incredibly mean ways. You know, if hr could
hear the voices that we used in our head, we
would all get fired for talking badly to ourselves, right,
But there are strategies that we can use to counteract that,
and one of my favorite ones is when you hear
yourself on that ruminative loop where you're saying, oh, I suck,
I didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Well, I'm not doing enough.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
That's when you take a moment to label that thought.
You give it a name.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
My Yale students like to use Karen because I think
Karen is like a meme, people like, oh, yeah, Karen, Yeah,
you're just saying I'm bad today.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I hear you, Karen, thank you for trying to help, right.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
But I think in the spirit of Systemy workshop, we
can say that's my Oscar voice, like I'm just being
a grouch to myself today. And so that's just a
hack that you can all use when you notice that
rum and into voice, stop it, thank it, you know,
allow for thank you negative voice, Thank you Oscar for
trying to help me. But I'm going to stop that
train of thought and move on to something else. So
that's another quick hack that parents can use. And so
(28:45):
so so far today we've talked about ways that we
can teach really difficult concepts. We can show and model
skills and practices that kids can engage in when they're
not feeling good. We can also show and model practices
that maybe parents can engage in when they're not talking
to themselves and feeling so good.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
You know, With all these.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Things together, my last question for both of you is that,
you know, are you hopeful that we can address this crisis?
You know is sit on the college side, you know,
I see the emotional struggles that students come in. I
see the depression and anxiety. Do we really think we
can use media to nip that in the bud? Can
you get me away from my lectures so I can
go back to doing my research and I don't have
(29:23):
to keep teaching these classes on emotional health to college students.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Can we kind of make it there early enough for kids? Yes,
I think we can.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
You know, as Stevid said, we've you know, handled tough
topics in the past, and I think that you know,
with the content that we're going to be creating that's
engaging and that's for both parents and caregivers and children
and our research based you know, resources that we'll be providing,
I think that we will be able to help children
develop the tools that they need so that they can have,
(29:52):
you know, a positive and healthy mindset for now and
in the future.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Steve.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I'm hopeful as well, or I wouldn't be here for
two reasons. One is I think that we have the
proven techniques, and I think we have a lot of
partners because we're as good as our partners in terms
of if we're going to reach the audience is at
scale that we need to. But the other thing is
from a societal perspective, it seems like people are acknowledging
it as they always say, that's acknowledging the problem is
(30:19):
that the gatekeeper sort of in terms of addressing the problem.
And as I joke to Lori but not completely joke,
that you know, success will be measured in fifteen years
when her class is six hundred is now a seminar
of ten people, and they're historically looking at d see
what it used to be like. So it's a history
class as opposed to a moment in time class.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
And so this is one of the reasons that I'm
excited not just about this conversation but about future conversations.
If your interest was piqued by this, I encourage you
to pay attention to the Happiness Lab podcast feed because
we're going to be continuing to have lots of conversations
with the folks at Sesame Workshop about best practices.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
That we can use to engage with this. But with that,
I want to thank all of you for listening and
to think my fantastic panel.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Steve Youngwood, CEO of Sesame Workshop, Kay Wilson Stallings, Chief
Production and Creative Development Officer, and there's probably somebody else I'm.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Forgetting to thank.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yes, Elma, you forgot to thank you, Alma, But that's okay,
you know, dark a night.
Speaker 7 (31:27):
Oh, I had a really good time learning all these
different strategies.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Well, thank you so much, Elmo. This has been such
a fun conversation and I hope we can do it
again sometime soon.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah, I'm much here.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Thank you so much for Elmo. Everyone, gog you, hie everybody.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Everyone. You might be surprised to hear that I kind
of share Steve's hope that I can retire from teaching
my college happiness class. My dream is that someday we
won't need people like me teaching well being strategies to
young adults, because all those emotional skills will be as
much a part of early educational development as learning the
ABC's or how to ride a bike. But We've got
(32:04):
a lot of work still to be done to get
to that point, and I hope that the Happiness Labs
up in collaboration with the Sesame Street Folks, will be
an important first step in that direction, showing that it's
never too late and also never too early to pay
attention to what science has to say about happiness. So
keep an ear out for that very special season coming
this fall. And just a reminder that Sesame Workshop is
(32:26):
a nonprofit organization with a mission to help kids grow smarter, stronger,
and kinder. The work they do is funded by donations
big and small, so if you really want to become
a part of their important mission to improve children's emotional wellbeing,
then be sure to visit sesameworkshop dot org, forward slash
support us
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